


Single Use Companion

by wannaliveindeansdimples



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Anal Sex, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Humor, Angsty Schmoop, Blow Jobs, CLICHES OUT THE WAZOO, Castiel Has Self-Esteem Issues, Crossdressing Castiel, Crossdressing Kink, Daddy Issues, Dean Has Self-Esteem Issues, Dysfunctional Family, Falling In Love, Family Drama, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends With Benefits, Frottage, Gratuitous Smut, Homophobia, How many tropes can a tropey dimps trope if a tropey dimps writes tropey tropes, Kittens, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Nurturer!Dean, Oral Sex, Rimming, Schmoop, Tropes, dean and cas have all the sex, explicitly stated naked butts, naked butts, not dean or cas, tropes hella plenty, you mean it's not the 30 tropes in a day challenge?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-21
Updated: 2015-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-31 14:35:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3981706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wannaliveindeansdimples/pseuds/wannaliveindeansdimples
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean wants to get drunk and lose himself in someone else. Cas helps him get more lost than he ever anticipated. Can they help each other find the way out to something better?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'd, so all typos, etc are definitely mine.  
> This was so fun to write. Hope it shows.

Dean didn’t want to think. He wanted to lose himself in alcohol and sex and forget everything else for a while. These days didn’t come too often anymore, but when they did, it seemed they were worse than they ever had been.

When he was younger, it seemed like he spent every other day like this. An itch under his skin he couldn’t name, but one that drove him straight to the bar, fake shoddy ID at the ready. There was always a slew of people willing to overlook how old he really was, be it bouncer, bartender or barfly, just because he was pretty.

He’d spent a lot of time trying to be tough, but deep down he knew it was no use. He’d always be a pretty boy. He knew that even before he realized for sure that men did it for him as much as women did. That lesson was learned on his knees in a dirty bathroom stall when he was eighteen and he’d told the guy who hit on him he didn’t swing that way.

“You sure about that? ‘Cause I’ve been watching you tonight. And I’ve seen you checking out everything that walked through the door, whether it was packing tits or balls.”

“Everybody does that,” Dean had defended.

The guy—Benny, Dean thought his name might have been—had laughed. “No, brother. They don’t. Not unless they’re interested.” Then he’d slipped a little closer. “Tell you what. Why don’t we do a little test, huh? You try sucking my dick and if you don’t like it, you can stop.”

All these years later, Dean realized that the fact that he’d agreed said as much as enjoying sucking cock had, but at the time, he’d had to have a dick halfway down his throat before he’d realized he was getting off on it. He’d never looked back.

Tonight had started well enough. He’d been in a good mood. Nice phone call with Sam, and a little faux chat with the drooling mumbler that his eight month old niece was, had put him in a much better mood. Then he’d gotten a passive aggressive voice mail from his asshole father and that was all it took to start his mood going south.

He’d shaken that off as best he could, but then he’d seen the ad for the black Impala. Thinking about that car always made his mood drop. He had an Impala and a perfectly good one—but in the past ten years, it hadn’t run and he was no closer to making that happen. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done even the tiniest bit of work on it.

His thirtieth birthday was looming and he felt like he’d done nothing of substance at all with his life. So his response, as it had been for so long, was “When in doubt, get fucked up and riot,” a series of actions which for him consisted of getting drunk and passing out in front of the television, or going to a bar and getting drunk in order to pick up a single use companion.

Tonight was an option B kind of night. He got dressed in a shirt that showed off both his eyes and his shoulders to good benefit and a pair of jeans that were tight-looking enough to leave little doubt to his attributes whilst still being easy on and off. He threw on a few pieces of jewelry and drove at random till he found a bar he liked the look of.

It wasn’t a gay bar, but he found his mark the second he walked in the door and his would-be conquest was most definitely male. He was about Dean’s height, thick where Dean’s own body tended to be lean. Chiseled jaw and come-fuck-me blue eyes. He had a woman with him, but his eyes were scanning the bar and landed on quite a few male forms—appreciatively—along the way.

Dean made a pass around the bar first, just to make sure he was on the guy’s radar. When he was close, he felt that azure gaze on him and flicked his green eyes in that direction. He smirked just slightly before looking away, never slowing his gate in the slightest. He could tell the guy’s look lingered, but he pretended to be unaffected. In truth, up close the man was twice as hot as he’d been from the door and Dean wanted nothing more than to strip off his own clothes and beg the guy to take him, right there at the bar. He was that kind of hot.

Dean made his way to the bar, doing his best to radiate a look but don’t touch vibe as he all but swaggered up and ordered a shot and a beer. He tipped the bartender a ten and leaned his back to the bar as he threw back the shot and then started sipping the beer nice and slow. He was unsurprised to catch that blue gaze again, but he was gratified by the heat that was in it. Dean held the look while he swallowed a large quantity of his beer and then wiped his bottom lip with his thumb.

“Is this seat taken?” asked a perky blonde woman who obviously had as much interest as the blue eyed man did. He was pretty sure she had eyes, but the color eluded him, as his attention did her.

“You can sit, but unfortunately I’ve already got my eye on someone else, sweetheart,” he said with some measure of regret.

“Really? ‘Cause you look like the wandering eye type to me,” she purred, running a hand up his arm.

Before he could think of a way to get out without pissing her off, an arm slid around his waist and a kiss was planted on his neck. Then the deepest, hottest voice he’d ever heard spoke just next to his ear, but loud enough that Dean knew it was for the blonde’s benefit.

“Sorry I’m late, sweetheart. Did you miss me?”

Dean turned just enough to confirm it was Mr. Azure Gaze and put on what he hoped was a winning smile. “No problem, baby. This pretty young lady and I were just getting acquainted.” Dean wasn’t interested in her, but neither did he like the presumption that he was spoken for just because they’d made heavy eye contact.

“I’ll save you the trouble, honeypie. Boyfriend, meet Whore of Babylon. Whore of Babylon, aka Ruby, meet boyfriend.”

Dean wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but he seemed to have stumbled into some kind of drama in which he had no interest in taking part. He stepped away from the bar, both hands held up with his palms out.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on between you two, but I want no part of it. I’m not here for this.”

“Basically, she’ll sleep with you, then rate you by performance and endowment on a public website—not to mention helpfully post the link to your score on your Facebook page,” Mr. Azure Gaze said. “I thought I’d save you the humiliation.”

Dean gave the guy a stare that could melt metal. “So you just assume I’d be bad and under-endowed?”

The guy rolled his eyes. “I assume she’s never slept with a single person who made it above awful on her scale.”

Dean glanced at Ruby to find her smiling and shrugging. “Men just need to try harder to please me.” The blue-eyed guy snorted and she leveled a glare at him. “You’re just mad you never made it on the list at all, Cas.”

This time Cas laughed outright. “Ruby, I have a lot of weird fetishes, I’ll admit, but the desire to sleep with Satan herself isn’t one of my kinks.”

Evidently now pissed off enough at Cas to stop making a play for Dean, Ruby stomped away, downing her drink at a gulp as she went. Dean and Cas watched her and then Cas turned back to Dean and gave him an assessing look.

“Look, I wasn’t trying to stake a claim, I was just trying to spare you her bullshit. If you’re not interested, I will take myself elsewhere,” Cas said, starting to leave.

“Never said I wasn’t,” Dean said, calmly finishing his beer.

Cas gave him a sarcastic half-smile. “Nor did you say you were. I’m not here for games...?” Cas left the sentence hanging, and Dean belatedly realized he never gave his name.

“Dean.”

“I’m not here for games, Dean, unless they are of the sort played in a bedroom between consenting adults.” He signaled behind Dean for fresh drink. “I’m here to find another such adult, preferably one who has an open mind and a flexible body.”

Dean finished his beer. “I’d like to get drunk and get fucked—by someone who knows how to make me scream myself hoarse—till I come so hard I black out.”

The grin Cas gave him said he knew exactly how to do those things. “How important is the being drunk part?”

“A little, why?”

“Because the sooner you’re finished drinking, the sooner I can start ruining your voice,” Cas said in a low rumble, stepping up close again.

Dean considered for only a split second. “Drinking’s overrated,” he said.

~~@~~

Back at Cas’ house, the two men wasted no time. If Dean was surprised by the heat that coursed through him at the touch of Cas’ lips to his, he had little time to dwell on it. They were licking and biting and pawing and rutting at each other from the front door to the bedroom, with barely a moment taken to breathe.

Before Dean knew it, he was up on the bed on all fours, not nearly as drunk as he usually liked to be for this kind of thing, but too turned on to be worried about it for once. There were teeth sinking into the muscles of his ass cheeks, and fingers and thumbs kneading them. His thighs didn’t escape without a few nips and squeezes either.

Then there was lube and then there were _fingers_ and then there was bliss. Cas must have taken a long time to work him open because Dean never felt any pain, but it took no time at all before he was a panting animal, all higher brain function offline. He knew only pleasure, focused intently on one area of his body and no other.

Then a slick hand reached around and gave his cock a lazy stroking tug and he gasped out, brought back into the moment. An instant later, Cas’ cock was breaching him and he was sliding back to try and speed up Cas’ forward momentum.

He had the presence of mind to ask, “Condom?” but he barely registered when Cas came back with a response.

“Wearing one. Can’t you tell?” Cas asked breathlessly.

“Mm,” Dean replied, not even knowing himself what that meant.

He dropped onto his elbows. It put him on display, he knew, made him feel open and dirty and hungry but he liked it. Cas liked it too. Dean could tell by the way he grunted and grabbed both of Dean’s hips to get more torque. Then that fat cock was pounding into him and hitting just the right spot and Dean couldn’t really focus on much of anything else.

His arousal built up like liquid joy inside him, tightening and drawing his consciousness into one tiny point. Then the spring was loosed and his body shook and quaked as he shouted until his throat was raw. He’d been making a lot of noise the whole time, but at the end the shouts were harsh and high and primal. He was barely aware of it as Cas pulled out and pulled off the condom before coming onto Dean’s back. He was pretty sure Cas leaned down and licked a hot path along where his release landed, but Dean was too busy collapsing onto the bed and floating out of consciousness to really be sure.

“Fuck, that was good,” Cas said as he dropped onto the bed a little bit later.

It had been long enough that Dean felt somewhat recovered. “Hell, _yeah_ , it was,” he said, rolling over and propping himself on one arm.

“I cleaned you up, in case you didn’t notice,” Cas said. He snorted, eyes closed. “You were snoring, so I’m guessing you didn’t.”

“What? Dude, I don’t snore,” Dean said, sounding more confident than he actually felt about his words.

Cas leveled an amused glare at him. “Oh, really? And how often do you actually have people around when you’re asleep?”

Dean glared back. “Speaking of which, I should go,” he said when a come back failed him. He made no move to get up, however.

“Or, you could stay,” Cas said, his tone like a verbal shrug. “I’d be up for a round two, unless that’s beyond a man of your advanced years.” The challenge was obvious.

Dean shifted, sarcastic response at the ready, then winced as his cheek hit the bed. He dropped the false bravado. “My dick’s plenty game, but I think I’m a little too sore in other places.” He laughed and gave Cas a flirtatious look. “You gave it to me pretty good, I have to say.”

Cas chuckled. “I aim to please.” He stretched and Dean’s mouth watered at the way his muscles went taut and shifted beneath the skin. “However, there are other ways to please each other that don’t involve your ass taking another beating.”

“True,” Dean said, thinking about all the different ways he’d like to please Cas or be pleased by him. One night only, may as well get his money’s worth, so to speak.

“I think maybe a little food and water might be a good idea first, though.” He pointed at a door. “There’s the bathroom if you need it. I’ll be in the kitchen whenever you wanna join me.” With that he rolled off the bed and padded across the room buck naked.

“Damn, that boy’s got a nice ass,” Dean whispered to himself when Cas was gone.

He made use of the facilities and splashed his face with water once he’d washed his hands. He didn’t bother with clothes, since Cas evidently felt no need. He made his way through the house to kitchen, where he found Cas chopping vegetables to the unmistakable whir of a microwave running. The counter held chopped onions, shredded lettuce, sliced olives and a tomato Cas was cutting into hunks, along with sour cream and a bag of tortilla chips.

Cas glanced up with Dean walked in. “I hope nachos are okay.”

“Nachos are awesome, man, thanks. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

Cas shrugged, still chopping as the microwave went off. “It’s no trouble. It was the only thing I had that was quick, actually. You want water, soda or decaf iced tea?”

“Man, iced tea sounds good.”

Cas pulled a pitcher from the fridge. “I hope sweet is all right, as it’s all I’ve got.”

“Perfect.”

Cas gestured at Dean to sit at the island, then poured them each a tall glass of tea. He pulled down a large platter and a slightly smaller bowl, placing both on the counter. Dean watched as he scooped a bean and cheese and meat mixture from the microwaved container onto the center of the platter, then covered it with all the vegetables and finally the sour cream. He then dumped some of the chips into the bowl.

“Bon appetit,” he said, sitting opposite Dean at the island.

Dean dug a chip through the mixture and popped it into his mouth, not expecting much. “Holy shit,” he said, quickly shoveling more of it up with another chip. “These are the fucking shit, man. You made these? Like, from scratch?”

Cas laughed. “They didn’t come from a can or a packet, if that’s what you mean.”

“Top three hookups of all time, man,” Dean said, smirking as he ate another nacho. It was more like “Best Hookup Ever,” but Dean wasn’t going to say _that_.

“I’m so glad the nachos put me over the top,” Cas said with a glare, shoving a full chip into his mouth and continuing to stare as he chewed.

“Hey,” Dean said, feigning disinterest. “Anybody can pound me into the mattress, but feeding me homemade nachos after is something special.” Then he looked up at Cas and winked.

“Well, if anyone can do it, then I’m sure you’ll have no problem heading back out to the bar and finding someone else to do it just as well for round two,” Cas said smugly and then drank his iced tea.

Cas had some sour cream on his finger. Dean took his hand and said, “But they won’t have your pretty blue eyes,” in a low voice.

Then he popped the creamy finger into his mouth and sucked it lavishly, maintaining eye contact as his tongue removed all trace of sour cream and anything else that might have lingered on Cas’ skin. He was gratified to see Cas’ eyes darken with desire. He slowly slid the finger out from between his lips and rubbed the tip of it along his bottom one. Cas slid it back inside Dean’s mouth, this time with a friend. They held eye contact while Dean let Cas fingerfuck his mouth for a minute, adding a third and then even a fourth finger before he was done.

“How about we move into the living room?” Cas asked in a rough voice.

Dean, his mouth still full of fingers, didn’t answer. He just pulled his head back, letting the fingers slide out, and nodded. Cas led him to the couch and sat down, unabashedly, fully erect. Dean started to kneel in front of him, but Cas stopped him. He grabbed a cushion and placed it on the ground between his feet, then gestured for Dean to kneel on it.

Dean wasted no time on preliminaries. He got in close and wrapped his fingers around the side of Cas’ cock that was facing away from him, the thumb resting just below the head. Then he mouthed at Cas’ balls and stroked gently with his fingers for a minute, drawing lovely noises from Cas. He made an ‘O’ with his mouth and applied gentle suction up the shaft from base to tip and back while massaging Cas’ testicles with his left hand and pressing the shaft toward him with his right.

Touching Cas like this and hearing the noises he was making was getting Dean even more turned on. He had to reach down and stroke himself a few times to relieve the tension. He sucked only the tip of Cas’ erection into his mouth then, using folding his fingers around more to better stroke it. He stuck out his tongue and jacked Cas’ length so that the tip rubbed across his taste buds. He kept stroking and sucked a ball into his mouth. He returned to the open-mouthed suction and looked up just as Cas looked down at him, caused a punch of desire low in his belly as those nearly-blacked out blue eyes bored into him. Cas’ breathing was coming fast now and Dean was happy to get him to his orgasm, but Cas had other plans.

“Wait, Dean, wait,” he panted. A bottle of lube suddenly came into view. “Prep me while you do that.”

Dean grinned and swallowed him down, earning a guttural moan from Cas he could practically feel. He reached up and took the lube without looking, then slid off of Cas’ shaft and used his left hand to hoist Cas’ thigh up. Cas helped him out by lifting his leg, bracing it with his foot on the edge of the couch. He shifted down too, and moved his left leg further to the side, giving Dean better access.

Dean slicked up his fingers and went back to mouthing at Cas’ cock. He slid his fingers across Cas’ rim a few times without trying to go inside. Then he moved around it in slow circles while his tongue did the same to Cas’ head. He planted firm kisses from tip to base as he worked the first finger in slowly. He continued working his mouth all over Cas’ shaft and balls as he carefully made his way up to three fingers.

“I’m ready,” Cas said. Then Dean sucked him all the way down and crooked his fingers, and Cas said, “Hnngguhhhh _fuck!”_

Dean did his magic for another minute or so, until Cas was shaking and right on the verge of coming. Then he slid his fingers out and took his mouth away. Cas panted wordlessly as Dean asked about condoms, pointing to the end table without saying anything. Dean grabbed one and rolled it on before slicking himself up thoroughly.

He lined up and sank in and— _Oh, God, nothing is better than this—_ slowly pushed forward until he was buried fully inside Cas’ hole. He reached down and rubbed the pad of his thumb over the rim and Cas shuddered. Cas reached down to stroke himself, but Dean batted his hand away and replaced it with his own.

“That’s my job,” Dean said, slowly drawing back out.

“Then fuck me!” Cas growled.

Dean tried to keep the pace slow and steady, not giving in to Cas’ demands, but Cas seemed to decide that wasn’t how it was going to be. He sat up and managed to manhandle Dean until their positions were reversed, Dean sitting on the couch, with Cas astride his lap.

‘Slow and steady’ did not seem to be in Cas’ vocabulary at the moment. He started riding Dean so hard and fast that his cock slapped Dean’s stomach with every stroke. Dean reached out and held onto his hips, not to still him but just to have something to hold onto. He gazed up at Cas with his mouth slightly opened and his eyes wide, unable to quite grasp the amazing creature he was currently having sex with.

Cas shifted then and evidently located his prostate with Dean’s dick, if the wail that was ripped from his throat was any indicator. He held onto one of Dean’s shoulders and rocked up and down in a faster, shallower rhythm that had Dean himself very close very fast. When Cas reached out and put Dean’s hand on his cock, Dean stroked it in a rhythm that matched Cas’ own movements. It didn’t take long before Cas was crying out and Dean felt hot, thick liquid land on his chest.

Cas grunted and fell forward limply, still attempting to rock up and down. Dean took pity on him and flipped them over again, this time laying Cas lengthwise on the couch. He shoved one of Cas’ legs up to his chest and gave himself over to his cock’s demands for speed and depth. He slammed home again and again, getting little cries from Cas as he occasionally stimulated his over-sensitive prostate again.

Then he locked eyes with Cas and he was coming again, breath coming in ragged gasps until he was spent. He kissed Cas, long and deep, as the bliss threatened to carry him away again. This time, however, it was Cas drifting off to sleep, so Dean decided it fell to him to be the one to get up and clean them off. He pulled out gingerly, barely disturbing the half-conscious Cas as he climbed off. He made his way to the bathroom, discarded his condom, and located a hand towel. He wet it and washed himself, then rinsed the towel and brought it back to the sleeping Cas, who finally stirred when the wet cloth touched his skin.

“Thanks,” Cas mumbled, trying to sit up. When Dean was finished, Cas swung his legs out onto the floor. “We could do this again,” Cas said.

Dean laughed. “I really am tapped out this time, man, sorry.”

Cas rolled his eyes, a tired smile lifting one corner of his mouth. “Not tonight. Another time. Other times.”

Dean scratched the back of his neck, knowing he probably looked as uncomfortable as he felt. He didn’t do repeats—and he wasn’t sure what Cas was asking for.

Cas rolled his eyes again, this time less amused and more annoyed. “I’m not asking you to the prom, Dean. I’m saying, fuck buddies. Aren’t you as tired as I am of going to all the trouble to pick someone up only to find out they suck in bed?”

Dean nodded, chewing his lip thoughtfully. “This was pretty damned good, huh?”

“I wouldn’t be asking otherwise.”

“All right, yeah. Would be kind nice to be able to make a phone call instead of having to drive down and scope out the bar. Know what I’m getting in advance. Phone?” Cas directed him to the pocket of the jeans lying in the hallway. Dean input his number and then called it, making sure to save the missed call in his contacts. “Okay, we’re good to go. Call or text, whatever’s easier for you.” Dean stood, smiling. “I better go find my clothes.”

“Want coffee?”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind, that’d be nice.”

Cas smiled and shrugged and Dean went to locate his underwear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want me to be able to continue writing these things with any regularity, if you could do me a solid and share [this post](http://jamiedeanwrites.tumblr.com/post/118453611081/the-story-of-jax-and-dylan) (and/or buy the book), that would be amazing.  
> Either way, TALK TO ME I MISS YOU. ♥


	2. Chapter 2

Dean was having another shitty night. This time there wasn’t really anything specific that he could pinpoint that led to his mood. He just generally felt anxious and angry and like he wanted to punch things or cry like a hungry baby. He was seriously considering calling Cas. Over the past few weeks, they had called or texted each other for hookups with moderate frequency, and Dean ordinarily wouldn’t have hesitated, but it hadn’t been that long since he had last called Cas and the fact that he was the one who did it last, also gave him pause.

He didn’t want the guy to get the wrong idea. And more to the point, he didn’t want to give himself the wrong idea. There was certainly nothing wrong with enjoying Cas’ company—the sex had only gotten better since the first time, a thing which Dean hadn’t been aware was possible till it happened—but he didn’t want to get used to it. This was not and never would be a relationship, but Dean knew how easy it was to fall into patterns and trick his mind into acting in ways that didn’t fit the situation.

The thing was, though, they’d agreed to exclusivity—had even gotten tested so they could bareback—so it wasn’t as though Dean could just head over to the bar and pick up somebody. He’d be fine just getting drunk, but he and Cas had finished off the last of his liquor last time Cas had come over. He’d have to go out if he wanted to get fucked up. The mood he was in, he might drive off and keep going.

His internal war raged for another ten minutes, until it was resolved, not by his own decision making skills but rather by the ringing of his phone. It was Cas, asking him if he was free to come over. Dean, having already showered on the off chance things got bad enough to call Cas, was out the door and on the way before he’d even hung up the phone.

“Hey, come on in,” Cas said at the door. He smiled, but looked exhausted.

“Hey. I brought a six pack, but it’s not cold,” Dean said, lifting it up to show Cas.

“Have a seat. I’ll go put it in to chill and bring us back a couple of cold ones.”

Dean sat, willing his anxiety down to a dull roar. Cas seemed off and it was making him feel even edgier. Hopefully a beer would make him less so. Cas was gone long enough that Dean was starting to wonder what was keeping him. Just when Dean was thinking about calling after him, he appeared, hands empty and face in a frown.

“Sorry, it looks like I’m out of beer. You want something else while we wait for yours to chill?”

He did, but he also wanted to start feeling better sooner rather than later. He shook his head no and waited for Cas to walk over. As soon as he was within reach, Dean pulled him down into his lap, kissing him as thoroughly as the awkward position would allow. It only took a minute, however, to realize that Cas wasn’t really feeling it. Oh, he was kissing back, but not with the passionate abandon he normally showed. It seemed to be an auto-response instead of a real reaction.

Dean pulled back and gave him a questioning look. Cas sighed and shifted himself off of Dean and onto the couch, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

“I’m sorry, Dean. I thought—” He blew out a breath. “I thought this would be enough, but I don’t think even your considerable skills are gonna be able to distract me tonight.” Cas frowned and sank down onto the floor in front of the couch. “I suppose you should just go.”

Oh, hell, no. Dean could not be alone tonight, not as far up as his nerves had ratcheted by this point. _Think, Winchester. Think._

“Fuck _buddies_ , right?”

“What?” Cas asked, turning toward him and looking lost and confused.

“I mean, we normally just stick with the fuck part, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do the other part too, does it?” Cas’ face only looked more confused than ever. “Look, you’ve got alcohol, yeah?” Cas nodded. “All right, so I pour us a couple stiff drinks, you take your shirt off and lean forward on your arms and I’ll give you a back massage.”

Confusion gave way to annoyance. “Dean, I really don’t think I’m going to change my mind about sex tonight.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “And I’m not asking you to. Liquor?”

Cas’ face cleared up somewhat and he said, “Cabinet to the left of the sink. The top one. Glasses are in the same one.”

So Dean poured them each a very generous portion of what looked like really expensive scotch and took them back in the other room. He found Cas shirtless, leaning over just as he’d instructed. He set Cas’ drink on the table beside him and sipped his own before putting it down too.

“Drink up. You got lotion?”

“Next to the bed, I think.”

“Kinky.” Cas snorted. “Be right back.”

After retrieving the lotion, Dean got down on his knees next to Cas and warmed a handful of lotion in his palms by rubbing them together.

While he waited for the chill to leave the lotion, he asked, “You wanna talk about it?”

Cas opened his eyes and turned his head enough to glare at Dean. Dean just laughed.

“Hey,” he said, putting his hands on Cas’ shoulders and gently working the lotion across them. “Just thought I’d ask.”

He stroked and kneaded the muscles for a little while in silence, but Cas didn’t really seem to grasp the whole “relaxing” part of this thing.

“You mind if I talk while I do this? Tell you a story maybe?”

“Please do,” Cas said, sounding more vulnerable than Dean expected. Whatever was going on, it obviously ran deep.

“All right. When I was twelve, my dad bought a car. It was an older car, about twenty or so years off the line.” His hands didn’t slow as he talked, working around Cas’ back in firm, soothing circles. “It was a Chevy Impala, black one, nothing fancy. But it looked mean and fast and I fell in love with it right away.”

Dean waited while Cas shifted to get more comfortable, then worked his hands lower.

“My old man, he taught me how to work on her. We spent a lot of time together, fixing whatever problems came up. He taught me the basics and then he took me to his friend Bobby’s and I learned how to rebuild her from top to bottom.”

“Sounds like a positive experience,” Cas murmured, apparently finally allowing his muscles to relax and his mind to drift.

“Yeah. I mean, I thought so at the time, but looking back, my Dad did a lot of treating me like a dumbass while we worked on that car and got a lot of free labor in the process.” Dean cleared his throat and added more lotion to his hands. “Anyway, um, when I turned sixteen, he let me drive her to work, so I could save up and buy her off him.”

“He made you buy the car?”

“Yeah, I mean, we didn’t have a lot of money....” Dean trailed off, knowing his father had already bought another vehicle and that it would have been just as easy—and probably better—for Dean to just use some of his money from work to help pay the household bills. “Anyway, I bought her and she was mine. And I was proud of her, you know? I kept her in tip top shape. Always kept her tuned up and washed.”

He laughed bitterly as he worked his way lower down Cas’ spine. “And the old man never said a word about how good she looked or how well she was running—even though I had her running better than he ever did.” He worked his way back up Cas’ back and then added a little more lotion, dribbling it directly onto Cas’ back this time just to hear him gasp.

“Asshole,” Cas said sleepily and without much heat.

“So I’ve been told,” Dean conceded. “Right, so Dad never says anything about the car until the one time some asshole in a parking lot dings her, then all of the sudden, he notices her, right? Gives me shit about how he wouldn’t have given it to me if he’d known I was going to ruin her. Like he _gave_ me the car instead of making me pay more for her than he paid. Like I hadn’t been busting my ass to keep her up, at the cost of school and work sometimes, just to try and get a word of praise from his fucking ass.”

Dean realized suddenly that he’d been kneading in the same spot for at least a minute—and that he was far angrier than he’d realized when he’d started talking.

“Sorry, man, I didn’t mean to turn you into my therapist,” he said, continuing to massage Cas and intending to stop speaking.

“I’d like to hear the rest, if you don’t mind,” Cas told him quietly.

Dean’s hands stilled for a moment. “Yeah, all right. Um, okay, so, like I said, he never gave a shit, when I was keeping her perfect, but every time there was a little problem, he made a huge deal out of it.” Dean shrugged, even though Cas couldn’t see. “Eventually, I just stopped taking care of her. I bought a car with better gas mileage and I parked her in the garage and she’s been there ever since.” Dean’s hands slowed as he went back in time in his head. “My dad started mentioning the car every time I talked to him after that. Still fucking does. Not that I hear from him that often, except when he needs something, of course, but... I’m thinking about selling her,” he said, surprising himself.

“Maybe you should. It sounds like she’s a burden and a monument to your failed efforts to please an unloving bastard of a father.”

Before Dean could decided whether or not to be pissed off at that, Cas was reaching under the top of the coffee table to pull something off the shelf underneath. He set two frames on the table beside his head and sat up slightly.

“I have those myself.”

Dean looked and saw that the two framed papers were certificates for degrees, the bottom one a Masters. “Wow, that’s impressive. Never made it to college myself.”

“My father didn’t think so. Never came to a graduation. Never even sent a card. Always too busy with his charitable works to pay much attention to his sons.” Dean had stopped the massage after he’d mentioned selling the Impala and Cas now sat up completely. “Thank you for the massage, Dean. And the story. My father is still an asshole, but I feel... less alone with it.” Cas didn’t look at him as he said it, choosing instead to finish his scotch in a single gulp. Dean did the same. “If you take off your shirt, I’ll return the favor.” Then he shifted and winced. “But in the bedroom. My knees are killing me.”

~~@~~

Though getting a massage from Dean hadn’t brought Cas’ libido back, apparently giving Dean a massage did have restorative properties. Cas had been massaging for a few minutes, not talking, when he suddenly leaned down and kissed Dean’s back. The kiss was gentle and brief and not at all like other kisses they had shared. It was soon joined by others, until Dean’s entire back had received attention from Cas’ ample lips.

It was only then that Dean recognized the weight against his thigh for what it was—Cas’s erection. Cas moved his kisses down over Dean’s hips and then his ass, kissing along the cleft and on either side. None of this was like what they normally did, but Dean was too enthralled to think about breaking the spell.

Without warning, that tongue that had brought him so much pleasure in other ways was suddenly lavishing his rim with affection. This was something they had never tried or even talked about, but Cas had given himself over to it with single-minded zeal.

Dean was hardly complaining. That warm, wet instrument of delight was coiling desire deep in his belly. He could feel the sensations building and spreading in ways he had heretofore never experienced. No one, not one person in his long line of conquests, had ever done this to him before. He had heard of its many virtues, but he had never experienced them firsthand—though a few lucky people had received the experience from him when he was feeling experimental and they had seemed to enjoy it a great deal.

“Oh, God, Cas, what are you doing to me?” he whispered in a broken voice as that pointed tongue swirled in a circle over his balls and returned to breaching his rim in fast, shallow strokes designed to drive him mad.

He could feel Cas’ lips curl up in a smile, as that tongue slid deeper, moved slower. Dean moaned, low and wrecked. He was rocking his hips now, couldn’t help it, trying to get as much of what Cas’ mouth was offering as it was possible to receive. Cas pushed on his cheeks to spread him wider and Dean pushed back into it, opening himself as much as he could.

It felt so good. So fucking good. Nothing had ever felt this good. Nothing would ever feel this good again, surely. What could be better than—

Cas slid a finger into him and crooked it over his prostate, tongue still working it’s magic against his rim. Dean saw stars. Hell, he thought he might have seen whole galaxies. A few more minutes of this exquisite brand of torture and he came, untouched, all over Cas’ sheets. Cas flipped him over and licked him clean, making Dean’s dick twitch feebly.

Dean expected Cas to open him up a little more and fuck him, but instead Cas climbed up and straddled his shoulders.

“Want your mouth on me,” he said, stroking himself, and Dean sucked the head between his lips.

Cas held eye contact long past the time when Dean would have normally shied away from it. He couldn’t look away from those sapphire lasers, any more than he could have stopped breathing. Cas was stroking his cock directly into Dean’s mouth while he held his gaze captive, and, despite his recent orgasm, Dean was getting off on it in a big way.

After a couple of minutes, Dean had to reach down and stroke his revived—and aching—erection. Cas noticed and pulled away from Dean’s mouth. He moved down and grabbed some lube before lying atop Dean and taking both their cocks together. He still held Dean fast with his gaze, but now he stroked them both, tight and rough, all tenderness from earlier lost in the frenzy of impending orgasm. Dean didn’t mind. His earlier orgasm meant he needed more this time to get him there and Cas seemed to know just exactly what more was.

Cas was evidently skilled at holding back his release, and managed to hold his orgasm at bay until Dean himself was on the brink. Then they came together, spilling hot and wet all over Dean’s chest, stomach and neck. As before, Cas cleaned him up with his mouth, licking all traces of come away, from Dean’s cock all the way to his neck.

Dean had never really been into that, until now. Honestly, he thought every single thing Cas did was hot, even if he’d never liked it before. He was a little worried about that, but at the moment, his lethargy was too strong for him to devote much effort to his fears.

“Fuck, how does it keep getting better?” he asked instead. “You secretly a witch or something?” He was only about half joking.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Cas said as he rolled onto the bed beside Dean. He turned to look at him. “Not the witch part. That’s ridiculous,” he said with a smirk. “Pull the blanket up? I’m cold.”

Dean snorted. “Dude, it’s gotta be eighty degrees in here.”

“I’m _cold_ ,” Cas insisted.

“Well, come over here then. We can share body heat. It’ll warm you up and maybe it’ll cool me down.”

Cas draped himself half over Dean and Dean wrapped his arms around him. They fell asleep just that way and Dean was halfway home the next morning before it occurred to him that there was anything unusual about waking up next to Cas—or anyone else for that matter.

~~@~~

The next time Dean heard from Cas, he was surprised, in large part because of the hour. While a text from Cas at three AM would not have been unusual or that unexpected, a text at eleven AM seemed a little strange.

"Friends, you said, right?" Cas' message said.

Dean sent back an affirmative reply.

"In that case, will you do me a favor?"

"Probably. Whatcha need?"

Dean's phone rang.

“Never mind, I can’t ask you to do this,” Cas said as soon as Dean answered. He sounded so freaked out and so unlike his usual confident self that it had Dean rattled.

“Dude, just ask. I might say yes or I might not, but you won’t know unless you tell me what the favor is.”

“My brother’s wedding is on Saturday and... No, forget it. I’m a walking fucking cliche and I won’t drag you into this,” Cas said, clearly worked up over the whole thing.

“You need a date?” Dean guessed. “Did yours cancel or something?”

“No, I never had one. My brother only told us about the wedding this morning. They are oh-so-very in love, apparently, that they just couldn’t wait the normal amounts of time to have the wedding.” He sighed. “That makes me the last one without an attachment. And if I go in alone, they’re going to band together against me, even my father, and it’s going to be hell.”

“So you don’t need a date, you need a pretend boyfriend.”

“I told you I was a cliche.”

Dean laughed at the despair in Cas’ voice, since it was evident only when speaking of being a cliche and not when speaking of the hell to which his family might subject him. “Cas, it’s fine. I don’t mind. I got nothing going on Saturday. What do you want me to pretend to do for a living?”

“Dean, are you sure you don’t mind? It’s a lot to ask. And you don’t need to pretend to be any different, except for the boyfriend part.”

“Dude, it isn’t a lot to ask. Not like I got any problem touching you or anything. And are you sure about the job thing? I mean my job isn’t exactly glamorous.” Dean chewed his lip.

“Dean, you teach auto shop,” Cas said, sounding annoyed for some reason.

“Exactly!”

“You literally teach school children. Who could possibly find fault with that?”

“It’s not like I teach math or something, man. I teach kids how to be gear heads,” Dean said.

“You teach them,” Cas started, tone clipped. “Practical skills. And you help make sure they turn into productive members of society. And anyway, does fixing cars not involve math? And English? And science?”

“Well, I suppose, but—”

“But nothing, Dean. Stop judging your life based on your father’s standards. He uses a faulty scoring system.”

Dean wasn’t sure what to say to any of that, so instead he asked, “What time on Saturday?”

~~@~~

As he drove up to Cas’ house, dressed in a suit, Dean was nervous for no reason he could name. It wasn’t _his_ family he was trying to impress—and Cas had told him in no uncertain terms that if anyone pissed Dean off, he was free to be a complete dick to them, no need to try to be polite—and it wasn’t like a couple hours of touching Cas was going to be a hardship. Or making conversation with the guy, for that matter. He was a pretty cool person, in general, so it wouldn’t be weird or annoying. It should be fun, actually, to spend some time with the guy when sex wasn’t on the table.

But then again, maybe that was the problem. Maybe that last night with Cas had made him think a relationship might be worth trying to have, even if he sucked at them and would never be able to make it last. Maybe he’d realized that he’d like to at least _try_ for something more than an endless string of one night stands again.

He shook off the maybes and the could be’s and went up to ring the bell. When Cas opened the door, Dean let out a low whistle of appreciation.

“Damn, son, you clean up nice,” Dean said, looking him over down to his toes. Then he flicked his eyes back up and gave Cas a slow grin. “You sure we gotta go to this thing or could we stay here and explore my new-found suit fetish?”

Cas huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes, giving Dean a gentle push away from the door.

“All right, all right. Can’t blame a guy for asking. Seriously, man, you look....” Dean trailed off as he bent back to get a look at Cas’ ass, earning himself a swat on the arm.

“Save some of your enthusiasm for my family,” Cas said as he lowered himself into Dean’s car.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Dean said after he too had gotten into the car. “I got a lot of enthusiasm where you and that suit are concerned. Having a hard time keeping my hands off you isn’t something I’m gonna need to fake.”

Cas said nothing, but looked pleased. He gave Dean directions and then started to fidget. Dean reached over and put a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s gonna be fine, man.”

Cas sighed. “They just make me so crazy. It’s ludicrous that I have to resort to this, but they’d launch a full-scale campaign of ‘get Cas a mate’ otherwise.”

Dean snorted. “A mate?”

Cas scowled. “You know what I mean. They know gender isn’t all that important to me in terms of who I date, so I used a gender-neutral term, you ass.” Then his face softened. “Sorry. You’re doing me a favor and I’m being ungrateful. I’m just very nervous.”

“Don’t be. I’m telling you, we got this covered.”

Cas looked unconvinced as he stared out the window. “I suppose.”

Dean reached over and threaded their fingers together. “This?” he said, holding up their joined hands. “Is more convincing than you realize.”

“They might grill you about me. I should—”

Whatever he’d been about to say was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He dropped Dean’s hand and fished it from his pocket. By the time he had finished the conversation with whoever was on the other end—and whoever it was, they were agitating him until he was practically vibrating—they were arriving at the small church.

“Shit, we’re here and I haven’t told you anything about me!” Cas said, clearly panicking.

Dean did the best thing he could think of and kissed him. Cas, thankfully, responded exactly the way Dean had hoped he would. He went pliant for a moment and then enthusiastically returned the kiss. Dean finally broke the kiss and slid out of the car. He walked around and waited for Cas to do the same, taking his hand as he exited the car.

“You ready?”

“No,” Cas said, but he started walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven't commented yet? Don't worry, you've got another chance! ♥


	3. Chapter 3

The ceremony itself was no problem at all. There was only time for brief introductions before everyone was led to a seat. Cas’ brother Gabriel was marrying a woman named Kali, and the ceremony combined their two faiths a lot more successfully than Dean would have imagined possible.

The reception was being held in the courtyard outside and it was then that things started to go a little wonky.

Thankfully, they were spared from scrutiny a while longer by virtue of the fact that everyone had skipped breakfast and was ravenous. That’s how Dean found himself by Cas’ side at the buffet table when he looked up to greet the server and realized it was—

“ _Mom_?” Dean asked, incredulous. “What are you doing here?” Realizing by her face how that sounded, he quickly pasted on a smile and said, “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you, I’m just really surprised.”

She seemed mollified. “I told you Sarah and I were thinking of starting up a catering business. And we did!” she said, smiling. “This is actually our first gig, so be sure and talk up the food,” she said with a wink. Then she looked up and frowned. “But, wait, what are you doing here?”

Dean swallowed. _Oh._ “Well, I’m, uh, here with my boyfriend, Cas. Cas, this is my mom.”

Cas’ blue eyes went wide as they swung to Dean. Then he schooled his face into something less terrified and turned to Mary. “Hello, ma’am. It’s a pleasure. I’ve heard a lot about you.” As if sensing the next words from Mary’s mouth, Cas said, “I hope your being here means I will get to taste the pie Dean has raved about so often.”

As a distraction from the ‘why have I not heard about you?’ question, it worked wonders. Dean’s mom blushed and said, “There is pie, though I’m sure most people are more interested in the wedding cake.”

“I’ve never cared for cake,” Cas said, earning him a high rank in both Winchesters’ esteems.

“Sorry, Mom, but I think we’re holding up the line,” Dean said, noticing the people in front of them had moved down. “I’ll see you when I come back for seconds,” he told her with a wink.

Loud enough for Mary to hear while still being quiet enough to sound like it was conversational, Cas huffed, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell your mother about me!”

Dean caught the smirk on his mother’s face when she heard, but held in his own. “I’m sorry, babe, I just hadn’t found the right time. Don’t be mad,” he said, wrapping an arm around Cas and squeezing. He leaned in close to whisper, “Thank you,” directly in Cas’ ear.

Cas smiled sweetly. “Of course not, darling.” He pulled Dean in for a brief peck on the lips. “Ooh, these look delicious!” he said, turning back to the table of food.

~~@~~

Once they all sat down to eat, things were going well. Because the wedding had been put on with such a short amount of notice, they were skipping past toasts and a band, and just having a meal, cake and some dancing to the stereo they’d set up with the sappiest love songs known to man or beast.

Once the cake was served—though Dean and Cas both opted for pecan pie—they were served champagne in free-flowing amounts, and that’s when the trouble started.

“So, Dean,” Cas’ father started when conversation had reached a lull. “How long have you known my son?”

“Gosh, what’s it been now, sweetheart?” Dean said, turning to Cas. “Two months? Three? I’ve lost count,” he said, smiling at Cas.

“It’s strange that he never mentioned you before, is all,” Chuck said, as his wife, Becky, tried to shush him.

Dean turned to Cas in mock annoyance. “And here you were giving me shit for not telling my mom!” Then he shook his head and swallowed a lot of champagne to calm the nerves that were threatening. “Well, I mean, I guess I do talk to her a lot more than you talk to your dad.” He gave Chuck a pointed look. “Actually, I’m not even sure you’ve spoken since Cas and I have been together.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, no, that’s right. You did call him that one night. He didn’t really have much of a chance to bring me up, though, did he?”

After the night of the massages, Dean had learned that a call from his father had been the catalyst for Cas’ mood. His father had called to berate him for not having attended a family event in his father’s stead.

Rather than respond to the obvious jibe against his parenting skills, Chuck asked, “What do you even know about my son? I’ve never heard of you, my sons have never heard of you, though you claim to have been together for months.”

Cas gave him a panicked look, but Dean just reached down and took his hand, smiling reassuringly. “What do I know about Cas? I know he likes good scotch and bad movies. I know he doesn’t laugh much, but when he does it sounds so genuine and heartfelt that you can’t help laughing with him.” His neutral expression became a glare. “I know that he worked his ass off in school and yet no one bothered to show up to his graduation to tell him ‘good job.’”

Chuck dropped his gaze, but Dean kept going. “I know his favorite color is green, but nearly every shirt he owns is blue because it shows off his stupidly pretty eyes. I know he’s crazy smart and he cares about people and he prefers pie to cake.” He looked at Cas then. “And I know he’s the best boyfriend I’ve ever had.”

Cas looked back at him, seeming a little stunned. Then Dean saw his mother, standing at the table to pour someone’s drink. She was looking at him with a soft, happy smile on her face and he felt like an asshole. He stood up.

“I need some air,” he said, walking away from the table toward some kind of flowering tree several yards away.

Almost at the same moment he reached the tree, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Dean?” It was Cas.

Dean sighed and turned around. He wasn’t sure what to say, so he went with saying nothing.

“Thank you for everything you said back there. You... you didn’t have to say those things, but it was very kind of—”

“What if I’d like to be more than fuck buddies, Cas?” Dean heard himself ask. For a moment, it was like he was floating above them, looking down at the two of them from the branches of the tree.

“I—what? You want... like, dating?” Cas asked, and Dean couldn’t gauge his feelings on the subject.

Dean decided it was better to know for sure. “I like you, Cas. We get along really well and you turn me on more than anybody else I ever met and that night we fell asleep together is the best sleep I’ve had in years and... yeah. Like dating.”

“All right. I’m not very good at dating, but we can try. I... I like you too. Rather more than I expected to, actually. And today, well, it felt more natural than I anticipated. It felt....”

“Right,” Dean supplied.

Cas smiled. “Yes.”

Dean pulled Cas to him. “Seal the deal with a kiss?”

“I think that’s a splend—”

He didn’t get to finish because Dean’s mouth was crashing into his.

~~@~~

The night of their first date, Dean rolled up to Cas’ house with his heart racing in both excitement and fear. He honestly could not remember the last time he’d gone on an actual date, but he knew—given that it had been years since it happened again—that it hadn’t ended well.

Cas was dressed up for a change, rather than dressed to arouse. Dean was as well, but he didn’t think it made as drastic a change on him as it did on Cas. Cas looked... dashing? Was that the word? Did anyone use that word anymore? Dean didn’t care. It wasn’t like he was going to say it out loud.

“You’re early,” Cas said, face looking less dashing than grumpy.

Dean smiled and lifted a shoulder. “I couldn’t wait.”

Cas’ face lost its grumpiness and took on a soft, pleased-but-surprised look. “Oh. I’m excited too, but... also nervous, I think. It’s been a long time since I did this.”

“Hey, same here. We’ll wing it together, okay?”

Cas nodded.

Dean had let Cas pick the restaurant and he was not disappointed. It was LGBT-friendly and featured photographs of couples of all orientations, as well as a couple of images of triads. More importantly, in Dean’s estimation, the food was delicious without being over-priced.

“This is a great place,” Dean said, spearing another bite of prime rib onto his fork.

“It is. I’ve only been here once before, but I quite enjoyed it.”

“You want a bite of this prime rib?”

“If I wanted prime rib, I’d have ordered it,” Cas said, taking another bite of his linguini. He immediately looked abashed, but Dean just laughed.

“Somebody needs a nap.”

Cas sighed. “Actually, yes. I barely slept last night.”

“That happen a lot?” Dean asked.

Cas shrugged one shoulder. “Not all the time, but... more than rarely, I suppose.”

“Yeah. For me, it’s not as common as it used to be, but it happens a lot more than I’d like. A few times a month, maybe. It sucks.” He took a long sip of his beer. “We can do this another time, you know. Get some to-go boxes and I’ll take you home so you can rest.”

Cas chewed his lip thoughtfully. Then he nodded. “I like the to-go idea, but how about you come home with me and we relax on the couch with a movie while we eat? If I go to bed too early, I’ll be useless again tomorrow, since I’ll just wake up in the middle of the night.” He found the waitress and waved her over. “Besides, I find your company soothing. I’d like to enjoy it for a while longer.” He gave Dean a small smile.

“As first dates go, I’d say that sounds pretty sweet. Should we get some dessert?”

Cas shook his head. “I’ve got some pie at home.”

Dean grinned. “I knew I liked you, Cas.”

~~@~~

Back at Cas’ apartment, Dean suggested Cas change into less formal clothing and Cas readily agreed, so Dean went into the kitchen to put their food onto plates. When he got back out to the living room, Cas was just walking out, wearing an old T-shirt and some pajama pants.

Cas looked down at himself and smiled. “I wanted to dress up for you tonight, but it looks like you’re getting both ends of the spectrum.”

“You look just as good like this,” Dean told him honestly.

“Thanks for getting the food ready.” Cas looked around. “Where did you put the movie?”

“Oh, I think I might have left it in the kitchen. Be right back.”

They’d rented Guardians of the Galaxy and Dean was excited to show Cas. He grabbed it from the table and started walking back, just as his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He would have ignored it, but it was Sam’s name on the caller ID.

“Heya, Sammy, how’s it going? Everything okay?”  
“Yeah, everything’s good. Just had a minute and thought I’d call to check on you.”

“Ah. Well, um... actually, I’m kind of on a date right now?” Dean said as he handed Cas the movie. “Can I call you later?”

“You’re... a date? Like, a real date? Or just a hook up that’s earlier than usual?”

“A real date, Sam. Thanks for making a big deal out of it,” he mumbled, hoping there might be some way for Cas not to hear.

“Sorry, man. Uh, call me later, I guess.”

“Yep. Will do.”

“I’m happy for—”

“Hanging up now!” Dean announced just before doing exactly that.

He was enjoying his evening, but he was nervous and the last thing he needed was added pressure. Still, it was nice to know his brother cared, he supposed. Cas’ father was a clear indicator that things could be much worse. Feeling slightly guilty, he sent Sam a text, half apology, half gratitude that said “Thx. Me too.”

While they ate their food, they sat at opposite ends of the couch, with their feet in the middle. They didn’t touch, or do much talking, but the silence and the positions were comfortable. As soon as they had both set their plates on the coffee table, however, Cas got up and moved over to Dean’s side of the couch. He didn’t ask first, he just sat down between Dean’s bent knees and leaned back against his chest, grabbing Dean’s arms and wrapping them around himself.

Dean laughed and looked down at him. “You comfy?”

Cas smirked. “Yes. Shh.”

They watched the remainder of the movie in that position, each occasionally petting the other, but never with any heat to the touches. It was only as the credits rolled that Cas lifted his face up and back and kissed Dean.

“Thank you for tonight, Dean. It was better than I hoped.”

Dean smiled warmly. “Yeah, Cas. Me too. Call you tomorrow?”

They hugged goodbye at the door and Dean left, a spring in his step all the way back to his car.

~~@~~

If Dean had hoped that being with Cas in a dating situation would be a miracle cure for his neuroses, he was quickly disabused of that notion. They’d been talking on the phone with fair regularity for the past few days since their date. Dean was happier than he could remember being in a long time and he was more optimistic about the future as well.

Then he got a phone call from his father and his mood went south even faster than normal.

His opener had been, “Your mom told me you had a boyfriend. Thought you got all that gay shit out of your system when you met that Cassandra girl.”

Things had only gone downhill from there, as Dean tried yet again to explain he was bisexual and his father had once again resolutely refused to acknowledge that was a thing, let alone an acceptable thing.

“I don’t see why, if you like girls, you can’t just find a girl you like and be with her. Why bother with guys if you like girls?”

“Because, Dad, I didn’t find a girl I liked. I found Cas and I like Cas, so I’m with him.”

Instead of responding to that, his father had just changed the subject. “You ever gonna do anything to that Impala I gave you? I gotta guy who’ll give you two for it.”

Dean considered arguing. He thought about pointing out that, even not running, the car was worth way more than two and his father knew it. Instead, he chose to end the conversation with the upper hand.

“Sorry, Dad, Cas is calling, I gotta go.”

He felt a little bad for allowing his mother to continue thinking he and Cas were more than they were, but then again, she knew better than to discuss him with her ex-husband, so he supposed they were kind of even right now.

He fumed for a little while, trying to decided what to do with himself. Picking someone up was out of the question, since he was with Cas now, but neither did calling Cas for a “make me forget life” banging session seem like the right thing either. And he still hadn’t bought any more booze.

In the end, since the universe had chosen to throw someone like Cas into his life and it seemed to be working okay for the moment, Dean thought he would try a little bit of WWSD? And Dean knew that what Sammy would do in this situation was talk it out with someone, generally the person he was dating or his brother, depending on the issue.

Dean decided he’d spent enough time crying on Sam’s shoulder about their father. Sam had long ago stopped speaking to the man and Dean was beginning to think that was the better choice, even if it went against his family-loving nature.

He picked up his phone and dialed Cas, heart fluttering in his chest at the idea that he was really doing this. He had a moment to worry—hope—that Cas wasn’t going to pick up, but then that deep, dark voice was greeting him warmly and his insides flooded with relief. He felt his shoulders relaxing already and he was too pleased to question it.

“Hey, Cas. Um, could we get together tonight and, uh, talk?”

“Is everything all right?” Cas asked, sounding wary.

Dean let out a breath. “Yeah, not really? I mean, I had a shitty night, kinda, and I just thought maybe... Forget it, it was a stupid idea.”

“No! Dean, it’s not stupid, I just thought you maybe wanted to... When you said you wanted to talk, I didn’t know if you’d changed your mind about dating. I was worried that you would.”

“Oh,” Dean said as he felt relief wash through him. “No, Cas. I haven’t changed my mind. Have you?”

“No,” Cas said, sounding as though he were smiling. “Please. Come over and we’ll talk about whatever you need to talk about. Um, I was just about to start dinner. Have you eaten?”

“Uh, no, actually,” Dean said, suddenly realizing he was ravenous.

“All right, then we can talk over dinner. See you soon.”

Figuring he needed to give Cas a little extra time to prepare dinner, Dean took a shower and changed clothes. He put on a little cologne and his softest green shirt—because why not?—and headed out the door, feeling the best he had since his father’s phone call.

When he got down to his car, his phone beeped a message. It was from his mom. “I’m sorry about letting slip to your dad about Cas,” her message said. “You know how infuriating he can be.” As he was reading, another message came in from her. It read, “He was saying some crap about how you were never going to settle down and I snapped at him that you had a boyfriend. I’m sorry, babe.”

Dean quickly sent off a reply to her. “It’s fine. Cas isn’t actually my boyfriend (although we are dating). Dad call you after he gave me shit?”

“Of course. How else could he tell me what an ingrate you are? ;) Love you. (And I hope it works out with Cas. He’s cute.)”

“Yes. He is. :)”

~~@~~

When Cas opened the door, Dean’s nose was greeted by the unmistakable aromas of Italian food. His stomach growled before he could even say hello, causing both men to laugh.

“That smells amazing, seriously,” Dean said as he walked in.

“Well, it should be ready, so let’s head toward the kitchen.” He reached for the six pack Dean had under his arm. “Here, let me take that. Do you want wine with dinner?”

“If that’s what you’re having, that’s okay.”

Dean could feel a little awkwardness seeping into the conversation and he wasn’t sure if it was the newness of the dating aspect to their relationship or the fact that he was here to talk or something else. However, Cas soon made it clear it was something else that Dean hadn’t thought of.

“I’m sorry. I’m not used to cooking for other people, so I’m a little worried about how you’re going to like the food,” Cas said, taking the beer to the fridge. He pointed at the seat nearest Dean. “Please, sit.”

Dean poured the wine, which was open and breathing on the table. He handed one to Cas when he turned back from the fridge and then he clinked their glasses together.

“Well, don’t worry, Cas. As good as it smells, I’m pretty sure you have nothing to worry about.”

“We’ll see,” Cas said, smiling. He grabbed plates and started setting the table. “I think it’s ready. Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind while I start plating?”

Dean took a seat at the table, sipping his wine before he spoke. “Well, you probably could tell from that last story I told you, my dad and I don’t exactly get along.” Cas nodded as he came to pick up Dean’s plate. “He called me earlier. And mom had let slip about you and the whole, uh, boyfriend thing.”

Cas looked worried. “Are you not out to your family? Did I cause trouble for you?”

“No, no, no, I _am_ out to them,” Dean hurried to reassure him. “It’s so not your fault. My dad just... he doesn’t get the whole bisexual thing. Like, I honestly think he might take it better if I were full-on gay. He actually asked me why, if I liked girls, I couldn’t just hook up with a nice girl.” Dean shook his head as Cas set a full plate in front of him. “And I know a lot of people do exactly that because it’s easier, but that’s not me.”

“What did you tell him?” Cas asked, as he sat down with his own plate of food.

“I told him I didn’t meet a nice girl, I met you,” Dean said, concentrating on twirling noodles onto his fork.

“You don’t think I’m a nice girl?” Cas teased, taking a bite of his bread.

Dean snorted. “Oh, you’re plenty nice—and plenty naughty—but you’re very much not a girl.”

“There are women with penises, you know.”

“Yeah, I know, but you’re not one of them.” Dean looked up and smiled around his fork. He finished it and said, “Bet you’d look sexy as hell in a dress, though.” He dragged his lower lip into his mouth with his tongue and teeth and let it out slowly, imagining.

Cas’ blue eyes darkened with interest. “Are you sure you came here just to talk?” he asked, voice husky.

“Nothing that says we have to talk the whole time, is there?” Dean asked, gaze fixed on Cas’ mouth.

“That’s true. Will you excuse me just a minute?” Cas asked, almost running out of the room.

Dean was a little worried by the abrupt departure, attuned by years of life with his father to assume he’d done something wrong. In the end, he decided he would just keep eating, figuring he’d find out soon enough. He sipped his wine more than he ate, not wanting to get too far ahead of Cas, lest he finish first and have nothing to do with his hands. He had finished and refilled his wine already and was beginning to worry about how long Cas had been gone, but before he would have gone looking for him, he heard footsteps coming back to the kitchen. He very nearly regretted eating, when he almost choked on the mouthful of garlic bread he’d just bitten when Cas came back in the room.

“Fuck,” he breathed as he managed to swallow and took in the spectacular view Cas presented.

Cas was wearing a slinky, sapphire gown and matching earrings and headband. He’d put on some eye makeup and a touch of lipstick too. Dean couldn’t tell if Cas was tucking or wearing some state of the art under garments, but Dean couldn’t see a lump or a line. Cas wasn’t wearing heels, just some silver sandals, but he was absolutely stunning from head to toe.

Dean had never really had an opinion one way or the other on crossdressing, but now he—and his dick—were having very strong opinions in favor of it, at least when it was Cas doing the crossdressing. Dean stood up as if lifted by an invisible rope.

“You look....” he whispered, unable to find the right word. He lifted a hand to touch, but wasn’t sure where to put it. He dropped the hand and shook his head. “There isn’t a word, Cas. Not for how good you look right now.”

Cas smiled with all his teeth and gums, the happiest Dean had yet seen him. “Thank you. Shall we finish dinner?”

“Um, yeah, okay,” Dean said, moving to hold out Cas’ chair.

Cas laughed. “Really?”

“Sorry, I guess I’m just not used to dining with royalty,” Dean said, gaining a soft smile from Cas.

Cas let himself be seated, then waited for Dean to sit down again himself. “Please finish telling me about what happened with your father,” he said, lifting a bite of his cooling pasta to his lips.

“Well, he insulted the car again. Or rather, insulted me by using the car, saying he had a friend who’d buy it from me for about half what it would be worth if it were in half as good a shape as it is now.” Dean’s mouth twisted bitterly as he ate a few more bites without speaking. “My younger brother doesn’t even speak to him anymore. I guess I get twice the crap because I tried to be the better son.”  
“He doesn’t deserve your efforts, Dean,” Cas told him with more vehemence than Dean had expected. “You should follow your brother’s lead.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes, as Dean considered Cas’ words. After a little while he realized that he felt much, much better than he had all day—and much better about the situation with his father than he maybe ever had. He felt lighter and realized he had made some decisions.

“You’re right, Cas. I’m going to cut him off. And I’m going to sell the car for what it’s worth.” He smiled. “Now lets finish this food so I can get that dress off you and find out what you’re wearing underneath.”

Cas’ smile was predatory. He reached out and stroked a finger across the top of Dean’s hand. “I intend to be wearing you before the evening is out.”

Dean’s fork started moving at lightning speed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How are you enjoying it so far? Please tell me! ♥


	4. Chapter 4

True to his word, a little while later Cas—who it turned out had been tucking—was buried inside Dean as Dean straddled him from above. Dean had started out in charge of the situation, reverently removing Cas’ dress while kissing over every inch of exposed skin. Before the dress was even completely off, however, Cas started giving Dean instructions, quietly taking control.

Dean had quickly found himself on his knees in front of Cas’ face, being sucked at and toyed with by an experienced mouth and fingers. He was on the verge of coming even before he slid backwards and onto Cas’ waiting cock. It only took a few strokes to get him there and then he could only hold on while Cas fucked up into him, whispering words of praise and encouragement. Thankfully, Cas was pretty worked up himself, so it wasn’t long before he too was shouting out his orgasm.

As they lay together a few minutes later, clean and spent, Dean murmured, “Dinner was fantastic, by the way.”

For some reason, Cas found this amusing and the chest under Dean’s cheek started shaking with the force of Cas’ laughter. Dean bit his nipple lightly in retaliation, but that only made Cas laugh harder. After a while, Cas’ laughter subsided, though and only a few minutes later, Dean could feel Cas’ breathing even out as he fell asleep.

Dean lay there in the dark bedroom, listening to the sound of Cas’ breathing. He could feel the heat from Cas’ skin pleasantly warming his own slightly chilly flesh. The thump of Cas’ heartbeat was a soft rhythm in Dean’s ear.

As he lay there, steeped in sensation and only half awake, it suddenly occurred to him that he was happy. In the moment, lying there with Cas, he was calm and content in a way that he was unused to feeling. He wasn’t in love with Cas, not yet, but there was something there. Something special, some kind of inexplicable connection that made him feel secure.

He tilted his head up until he could see the outline of Cas’ face. “I like you, Cas,” he murmured softly, not wanting to wake Cas.

Cas didn’t wake, but he did chuckle slightly and mumble, “Like you too, Dean” (though in his state, it came out closer to “Ligyutudean.”).

Dean smiled and snuggled closer, drawing the sheet over their middles, knowing that Cas—like Dean himself—preferred to leave his feet uncovered so he didn’t overheat while he slept. Dean pressed a kiss to Cas’ peck and then closed his eyes. He squeezed Cas gently and was reflexively squeezed in return. As hugs went, it wasn’t much, but Dean had had worse. Within moments, he was fast asleep.

~~@~~

Even as he watched state of pure bliss and excitement that was Cas’ face, Dean felt his eyes start to water and his nose start to run. Then Cas’ hands came up, wrapped around the scraggliest little ball of fur Dean had ever seen in his life.

“It’s a cat,” he said, rearing back in worry that his throat would close up if he breathed in a speck of dander.

“She’s a kitten!” Cas said excitedly. “I rescued her from outside the building this afternoon. Isn’t she adorable?”

Dean sneezed. “I’m allergic to cats,” he said, nose now barely functional.

“Oh,” Cas said in mild concern. “I think I have some Benadryl. Let me go check.” Without warning, he dumped the scrawny bag of bones and fuzz into Dean’s hands and walked away.

Two pairs of green eyes stared each other down. The tiny mutant gave a pitiful excuse for a meow, then started vibrating hard enough that Dean thought sex toy shops might want to patent it.

“Fuck,” Dean said, as he helplessly found himself scratching the kitten’s chin.

“I knew you’d love her,” Cas said brightly as he walked back in. “I brought you a wet cloth to wash your hands, as well as the pill and some water.”

“Thanks. Actually, it might help if we washed the little monster.”

And that is how Dean Winchester, former mortal enemy of allergy-inducing felines everywhere, found himself standing side by side with Cas at the latter’s kitchen sink, gently washing down a kitten. The poor thing looked about half the size when it was wet, and made even more pathetic sounds. On the plus side, the fleas were too weak to do more than drown and it did seem to be helping keep Dean from sneezing.

“Here, lift her up while I get the towel under her, then I’ll take her,” Cas said.

Dean hoisted the now-shivering kitten above the sink and watched as she dripped all over it. Then Cas was bundling her into the soft, white towel and fluffing her fur to dry it. He was murmuring sweet nothings to her about what a good girl she was, etc, and if it had been anyone else, Dean would have made fun. On Cas, though, it seemed too sweet to mock.

“You come up with a name yet?” Dean asked as they made their way to the living room.

“I was thinking Lavender.”

“Lavender,” Dean said, in disbelief.

Cas gave him a flat look. “Dean, names are very important. They can shape a personality. If I want this cat to be sweet and delicate, instead of wild and out of control, I need to give her a name that fits what I want.” Dean looked skeptical. “Your name means leader, dweller in the valley. Cas means king of the treasure. It’s why we both have such strong personalities, but you often feel so conflicted and I feel so burdened.”

Dean sighed. “Whatever you say, King of the Treasure. You and Lavender there should be very happy together.”

Cas smiled a little too knowingly for Dean’s taste. “Don’t pretend you don’t like her, Dean.”

“I don’t—she’s—shut up,” Dean said, taking the towel away from Cas to remove the damp kitten from it. “You have stuff to feed her with?”

~~@~~

Selling the car wasn’t as hard as Dean thought it would be. He invited Cas over to celebrate when the deed was done. Dean tried not to be annoyed that Cas insisted on bringing the cat, but Dean supposed he could see Cas’ point, since the kitten was still having to be bottle fed and was tiny and nearly defenseless.

“Don’t worry, I brought her carrier,” Cas said as soon as Dean opened the door. Cas handed him the kitten that Cas had been carrying and reached behind him to pick up the carrier in question. “I just need to feed her and then I’ll put her away in it.”

“Cool. I’ve got pizza on the way. Hope that’s all right.” Dean stepped toward the kitchen. “You want a beer?”

Cas said that he did and Dean went to grab them each one. When he got back, Cas was on the couch with the kitten. She was climbing his shirt and steadfastly refusing to take the bottle. Dean felt his lips curling upward.

“Here, let me try something,” he said.

Cas looked at him in surprise and a little bit of concern, but he handed over the kitten. Dean took her into the kitchen, motioning for Cas to follow them. He grabbed a can of tuna and opened it, pouring the liquid off onto a saucer. It was tricky to do with a cat tucked in his elbow, but he managed it. Not that it stopped Cas from fussing over Lavender like a mother hen the whole time.

He broke a few bits of the tuna off into the liquid and then set the cat—who was straining against his hold at this point—down on the counter next to the saucer. As he suspected she might, Lavender dived for the plate like an Olympiad. She quickly slurped and gobbled her way to the bottom of the saucer as Cas watched in amazement.

“She wouldn’t touch solids before, you saw!” he said when Dean put down another tiny chunk of fish for her.

“Yeah, but it’s been a couple days now. And once cats are ready for solids, they just kind of refuse their milk like she was. I’ve seen it before.”

Cas eyed him suspiciously. “Where?”

Dean, caught off guard, flicked his gaze in the one direction he didn’t want it to go, which was toward his still open laptop. Cas, naturally, caught on and rushed over to the computer to see what tabs were open. He looked back to Dean not with the smug smirk Dean expected, but with soft eyes full of wonder and a half smile.

“You’ve been researching cat care. For me,” Cas said in clear disbelief.

“Well, technically for Lavender, since I’m pretty sure you’re not a—”

Cas’ mouth made it pretty hard to keep talking at that point.

When Cas pulled back, he said, “Dean, there’s something that I want to say.”

Before Dean could respond, the doorbell rang. Dean held up a hand and went to pay for the pizza. The driver couldn’t have been more than seventeen and Dean had no idea how he’d gotten a job that involved handling money because he couldn’t count for shit. By the time he got the money sorted, Dean had completely forgotten the conversation he’d been having with Cas.

“All right, pizza!” Dean said happily as he came back into the room. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got one half vegetarian and half meat lovers, so we could mix and match however you like it.”

Dean walked over and set the box down on the table. Then he stepped into the living room to grab their beers. Cas took the kitten and put her in her carrier, as promised, then walked over to the sink to wash his hands.

As Dean opened the box, and he and Cas stared down at the contents, Cas blurted, “I think I’m in love with you.”

Dean was proud that he didn’t pause at Cas’ words, despite the fact that they made his heart stop and then start again at a dangerous pace no mortal could hope to sustain for more than a few minutes. He simply grabbed a slice of pizza and sat down to eat it, pretending that he hadn’t heard Cas speak. He’d barely spoken above a whisper, after all, so Dean thought it was a plausible excuse.

He ate his slice without comment, pasting what he hoped was a neutral expression on his face as he chewed. He wasn’t really tasting what he was eating, even though he made sure to chew eat bite for as long as possible, since that delayed any possible conversation for the maximum amount of time. Unfortunately, it was soon clear he hadn’t fooled anyone.

“Dean.” Cas didn’t sound hurt or angry, but there was a definite touch of irritation in his voice.

“Hm?” Dean asked, taking another bite of pizza.

“Dean, are you really going to try and pretend you didn’t hear me?” Cas asked in a tone that was cool at best.

Dean made a big show of chewing, swallowing and then washing the food down with a large amount of soda before he answered, hoping he’d figure out what to say by the time he was done. It didn’t work.

“What do you mean?” he asked, trying to sound innocent and reaching to lift his pizza one more time.

Cas reached out and stayed Dean’s hand. “Dean, you’re not fooling anyone.”

“Dude, what are you talking about? I’m just eating here,” Dean said in a defensive tone that he knew wasn’t exactly solidifying his case.

“Dean, you’re eating the vegetarian side of the pizza,” Cas intoned in a flat voice.

Dean couldn’t help the shock that went through him. He jerked back to look at the pizza he’d been lifting to his lips. “Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed, then closed his eyes and sighed, knowing he’d been busted.

“I’m an adult. If you don’t feel it back, you can just say so. I’m not going to crack into little pieces and die, Dean,” Cas said, throwing down a napkin and walking over to hold onto the sink.

His words sent a burning knife right into Dean’s chest. “Fuck,” he said to himself. He stood and turned toward Cas. “Look, Cas, I’m sorry. I just freaked out. I don’t exactly do well with those words and—”

Cas spun around, causing Dean to rear back slightly in surprise. “And you think I do? This was _your_ idea, remember, not mine. You wanted to date me, when things were perfectly fine the way they were. And I thought, okay, I can do this. He’s a nice guy, he’s funny, he’s great in bed. I can do this.” Cas spun back to the sink again. “And then you have to go and be this amazing... I mean you’re fucking nice to kittens, Dean! Who does that? And you’re thoughtful and kind and smart and I just....” He brought his hand sup into his hair and pulled slightly. Then he seemed to deflate. “I should go,” he said, starting to turn toward the doorway that led into the living room.

“Wait. Cas... It’s not that I don’t feel... _something_ , okay? I do. I just... I don’t know if it’s _that_ , okay? I don’t know if it’s....” He forced himself to finish the sentence. “Love. I don’t know. Okay?”

Cas looked at him with hopeful eyes. “So you don’t want to break up now?”

“Are you crazy?” Dean asked with real shock. “You’re, like, awesome. I mean, you’re incredible. You just kinda get me and you’re so funny. Sometimes not on purpose, but... like, you’re so calm when it’s serious shit, but you let all the little shit just wind you up and make you crazy, and I have to laugh when you get all grumpy and sarcastic. You’re like one of those birds that gets his feathers are puffed up and ruffled when he’s defensive.” Dean grinned, thinking about it, especially when he realized Cas was getting cranky right now. “It’s fucking adorable.”  
“I’m glad my dissatisfaction amuses you.”  
Dean stepped closer to his little ruffled bird man of a boyfriend. “Cas, I _like_ you. A lot. I care about you. I don’t want to break up just because your feelings maybe got a little ahead of mine. Do you?” By the time he said this last, he was standing right in front of Cas and had his head dipped down, almost within kissing distance.

Cas shook his head silently. Dean reached out with a finger and lightly tugged at Cas’ chin to bring him forward. He held eye contact as he slowly closed the distance between their lips. Cas let the kiss stay slow for the length of time it took for there to be full contact. Then he grabbed Dean’s head between his hands and dragged him forward, plunging his tongue into Dean’s mouth and lapping at him hungrily.

Dean decided this was a much better way to celebrate than pizza.

~~@~~

A few nights later, when Dean had ridden Cas until they were both hoarse and sweaty and filled with dopamine, they were lying in bed together. They were on their sides, facing each other and Dean was examining Cas’ fingertips for no real reason. He chewed on his lips as he struggled to find the right words for what he wanted to say.

“I caught up,” he said in a soft voice. He glanced up and saw only confusion on Cas’ face. “With you,” Dean said. “Emotionally.” As he watched the happiness break across Cas’ face like a sunrise, Dean added, “I’m in love with you.”

Cas gave Dean a grin full of teeth and gums and then gave him a kiss full of emotion. “Yeah? Good,” Cas said, then he rolled onto his back. “Um, in that case....” He fidgeted and licked his lips. “My sister bought a nonrefundable vacation package for herself and her husband and now she can’t go, so it’s all paid for except airfare... feel like taking a trip to Niagara Falls next week?” Cas asked with a weak laugh.

“You serious?” Cas nodded. “Dude, I haven’t had a vacation in like... ever. Hell yeah. Let’s go!”

“You don’t think it’s too soon to go away together? I was worried you’d think it was too soon,” Cas said.

Dean smiled and leaned forward to kiss him again. “I think it’s the perfect time. I’ve got some time off coming to me, I just need dates so I can tell work.”

Cas looked concerned. “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. It won’t be too short notice, will it?”

“Nah, they’ll be happy to get rid of me for a while, but hey, don’t we need to, like, reimburse your sister or something?”

Cas snorted. “No, her company has a policy of compensating for things like that. They gave her more money than she paid out and an extra day’s vacation, just for agreeing to work during the time she had scheduled off.”

“Nice!” Dean wondered how one got a job like that. He figured it probably required degrees like the ones Cas had. “So, those degrees of yours. You ever gonna do anything with them?”

“I have some plans. I need to save up a little more first, since Dad’s going to cut me off if I do,” Cas said, and Dean was pretty sure the bitterness was gone from his voice.

“I think that’s—wait,” he said, just remembering. “Did I meet your sister at the wedding?”

“No. She went off on her own long ago and is completely cut off from everyone but me.”

Dean smiled. “I like her already.

~~@~~

The morning of the trip dawned cold and rainy, which was out of season and a little unwelcome. Still, Cas seemed happy, so Dean was happy. They took a cab to the airport and Cas burrowed up next to Dean and dozed for the whole ride, while Dean held on to him and contentedly people watched.

There’d been some sort of terror threat recently, so everyone was having to show birth certificates as well as drivers’ licenses. It had been a pain in the ass trying to get a copy of his own, until Dean thought to ask his mother if she had her copy. When she found out why, she was over the moon and Dean had to calm her down, telling her, “It’s just a trip, mom,” even though it felt bigger than that to him too.

When they got to the plane, Dean tried to hide how nervous he was, but Cas could tell anyway. “Nervous flier?” he asked and Dean nodded, eyes closed.

Cas’ answer to that, it turned out, was to kiss Dean stupid during takeoff. Dean didn’t mind flying much after that.

There were some homophobic assholes on the plane who objected to two men kissing, but when Dean stood up and showed off his full height and breadth, those people shut the fuck up. The flight attendant fussily got him back into his seat, but she gave him—and Cas—a secret little smile and patted Dean’s arm when he was seated again.

Once they landed, they were picked up by a car service and driven to the Red Coach Inn B&B, where they were staying. They were on the second floor, in the Newcastle Room. Dean liked their beer, so he figured he’d like the room too and he wasn’t disappointed. They even had a view of the rapids near the falls, since their room faced the water.

“This is awesome!” he said when they arrived and set their bags down.

“It is indeed,” Cas said, smiling. “But I’m starving. Want to get some lunch before we head over to the falls?”

“I could definitely eat.”

Cas gave him a flat look. “This is my shocked face.”

Dean snorted. “Yeah, yeah, like you don’t eat just as much as I do.”

“Perhaps,” Cas conceded, then broke into a smile. “Want to order room service for now and look for restaurants before dinner?”

“Works for me.”

Twenty minutes later, they each had a steak plate and a decent beer and Dean was the happiest he could remember being in a long time—and he hadn’t even seen the falls yet.

“It’s nice there are still places were service means something, isn’t it?” Cas asked after he’d finished his first few bites. “The woman who took the phone order and the waiter were both very courteous. The food was made quickly and well. It’s nice to see that.”

“Yeah, there really is a breakdown of service in this country. Like, nobody cares anymore. I get they aren’t happy at their jobs or whatever, but I just want to ask them, ‘Aren’t you ever a customer anywhere? Don’t you wanna be treated better than this yourself?’”

That discussion somehow led to movies and by the time they finished their food, they’d been in the hotel almost two hours.

“Damn, time got away from me,” Dean said, then smiled. “Talking to you just makes it fly, I guess.”

“It makes the time more pleasant, that’s for sure,” Cas said, coming over to steal a kiss. “But I do want to see the falls before dinner, so hurry up.”

Dean laughed. “I’m finished. Let’s go.”

~~@~~

They’d been walking around the falls holding hands for the better part of four days now. Dean had thought it might get boring, but it really hadn’t. There was plenty to be said for the restorative atmosphere of the waterfalls. There was restorative power in the abundant sex he and Cas were having too. Though if Dean were honest, the quiet moments, where they walked across Rainbow Bridge hand in hand, or had deep philosophical discussions about pizza, those were the ones he treasured most.

Going to bed every night with Cas and waking up next to him every morning had been easier and more comfortable than Dean would have expected. He’d thought they’d be annoyed with each other by now—or that the logistics of sharing a single room would wear them down—but so far it had been wonderful. All the little problems seemed to work themselves out before they became issues. Even the time he’d eaten something that didn’t agree with him and he’d basically forced them to evacuate the room for two hours had ended up just making Cas laugh and bringing them closer together.

They still had three days to go, but Dean didn’t expect a lot to change. He and Cas just... worked. They fit into each others’ spaces. It didn’t seem possible, but Cas just made sense to him in a way literally no one else ever had. He didn’t think they ever would.

“So,” Dean asked as they walked along the overlook on their way to find a restaurant for dinner. “What are your thoughts on, like, marriage and family, Cas?”

When Cas didn’t answer right away, Dean glanced over to see that Cas’ face looked panic-stricken. Dean let go of his hand and stepped back. “Cas, I—”

“It’s not what you think!” Cas blurted. “I was just, you know, wondering if it was even possible, so I looked it up. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. I wasn’t going to bring it up or anything.” Cas looked terrified.

“Cas? Babe, I don’t know what the hell you think we’re talking about, but it’s not whatever has you so spooked. I don’t have a clue what you think you did or why you think I’m upset.”

Cas relaxed so quickly it looked like he deflated. “Oh. I thought you must have seen my phone.”

“And what would I have seen on your phone?” Dean asked, interest beyond piqued now.

“Nothing,” Cas said too quickly.

“I promise, whatever it is, I won’t be mad at you. Just tell me.”

“You can’t know that,” Cas snapped.

“Were you looking up how to murder babies or rape puppies? ‘Cause otherwise, I think we’re good,” Dean said evenly.

“I was looking up the requirements for a marriage license in New York State.”

Dean was shocked for a second, but then he smiled. “Yeah?”

Cas just got grumpier. “Oh, come on. You can’t possibly be happy about this. It’s too soon!” He stared at Dean and then, apparently noticing that his smile hadn’t faltered, asked, “Isn’t it?” in a quieter voice.

“You ever felt like this before, Cas? With anybody else?” Dean asked.

“No,” Cas whispered. “But this is insane. We barely... I mean, we shouldn’t even be in love yet and we’re talking about... marriage?”

“They always say when it’s right, you know, right?”

Cas swallowed heavily, then nodded.

“Do you know?” Dean prompted gently.

After a moment, Cas smiled and nodded, eyes suspiciously shinier than they had been.

“Yeah,” Dean said, smile growing. “Me too. You’re it, Cas. If I’m ever gonna do it, it’s you.”

“There’s a twenty-four hour waiting period from when we get the license, but there are places that have elopement packages,” Cas said hurriedly.

“We doing this?” Dean asked, excitement building.

“I want to,” Cas said, still sounding a little scared that Dean wasn’t in the same place.

“Cas, we’re on the same page, okay? You’re not ahead of me this time. That’s is why I asked about marriage in the first place. I was leading up to proposing.” Dean was practically giddy now. “We’ll go to the courthouse in the morning and get the license, go find one of those places that do elopements and day after tomorrow, we’ll become husbands.”

Cas kissed him, deeply and for a long time. “Can we have the honeymoon now?” he asked huskily when they broke apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I surprised you? Or did you see it coming a mile off? ♥


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it folks. Final chapter before a little epilogue.  
> (ugh, i've fixed the errors now, thanks to ProfoundBondofLove, bless you)

Dean’s stomach jumped as he sat next to Cas on the bed and listened to the phone ring. He glanced at Cas, who gave him a reassuring smile, though he too looked nervous. Dean drummed a beat on his knee as two rings turned into three and then the phone was answered and he sat up straight.

“Hey, mom. How’s it going?” he asked, hoping he didn’t sound as crazy to her as he did to himself.

“Fine. What’s wrong?” she asked, seeing right through him.

“Nothing! Um, the opposite, actually. Things are really, really good,” he said, smiling at Cas with all the warmth he felt.

“Ok _ay_ ,” she said, confusion and disbelief fighting over rights to her tone.

Dean thought the old band-aid adage was best. Do it fast. “CasandIaregettingmarried!” he told her in a rush, running all the words together. “Um, tomorrow. We’re getting married. In Niagara Falls.”

There was a moment of silence and then his grown adult mother _squealed_. “Oh my God, Dean, that’s so _great_! I’m totally flying up there. What time is the wedding?”

“Mom, you don’t have to—”

“Dean Your-Dad’s-An-Idiot-Who-Wouldn’t-Let-Me-Give-You-A-Middle-Name Winchester, do not argue with your mother! I am going to be at your wedding and that’s final. Besides, if you don’t have witnesses, you’ll have to pay for them.”

“So, two hundred dollar plane ticket to avoid paying thirty dollars for a witness. Yeah, mom, you’re right, that makes total sense,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his words. Cas swatted his knee.

“I think it would be lovely if you could join us, Ms. Winchester,” Cas said, glaring at Dean.

“Oh, Cas, you call me Mary. Or Mom. Either way, I don’t mind. Now, what time is the wedding?”

“It’s tomorrow at one,” Dean said, resigning himself to having his mom there. He supposed, now that it was a done deal, he was actually happy she was going to be there. “Think you can get here that fast?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll call you back and let you know what time my flight gets in. This is so exciting!” she said, voice going up in octaves and decibels. “Cas, welcome to the family. I knew when I saw you at your brother’s wedding there was something special about you.”

“Thank you, Mary. I know it’s rather quick, but—”

“Nonsense! I know my Dean. He wouldn’t be doing this if he wasn’t one hundred percent certain it was what he wanted. I hope the same is true of you, young man.”

“It is,” Cas said solemnly.

Dean reached over and took his hand, giving it a squeeze. “See you soon, Mom. Love you.”

“I love you too. And you too, Cas. I can already tell.”

“Yes, ma’am. You too,” Cas said.

Dean was warm inside in a way he didn’t think he ever had been before when they hung up the phone. He smiled at Cas, but Cas dropped his hand and was glaring at him.

“What?” he asked, hurt.

“Why didn’t you want your mother to be here?” Cas was angry.

Dean relaxed. “I did. I do. I just... I dunno, part of me wanted to keep you to myself, I guess.”

Cas’ expression softened and he took Dean’s hand again. “We have the rest of our lives for that.”

“Yeah. I figured that out. So, you ready to call Sammy?”

Sam, as it turned out, was a little more skeptical than their mother, but equally interested in being present for the wedding. Jessica smacking him in the back of the head no doubt helped with the former, while her booking his flight—as he debated the feasibility of attending with himself—solved the latter issue.

“I look forward to meeting you, Cas.”

“And I, you, Sam. Please give Jessica my regards.”

“Back at ya, sweetie!” Jessica called into the phone. “You keep Dean in line, you hear me?”

Cas laughed. “I will do my best.”

Now that Dean’s family was out of the way, Dean tried to convince Cas again to call his own.

“I don’t want to, Dean.”

“You don’t even want to, like, rub it in their faces?” Dean asked, smiling slightly.

Cas gave him a wan smile in return. “That does have its appeal, but they will find a way to upset me and I don’t want to be upset right now. I will tell them afterward.”

“Even your sister?” Dean asked.

Cas chewed his lip. “I suppose I could call her. She’ll be at work, so I’ll probably just get voicemail, anyway.”

Dean snorted. “That’s the spirit.” Cas’ smile was sad and Dean pulled him over toward him. “I know you wish your family would react more like mine did. Trust, though. If I called my dad? He’d make all your family’s reactions combined look like a Hallmark greeting card of warmth and acceptance.” He squeezed Cas to him. “Besides, Mom and Sam and Jess? They’re all going to be your family too, now.”

That got a genuine smile from Cas. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that. That makes me very happy indeed.” He grinned at Dean. “I’m going to call my sister and then we are having a ridiculously expensive lunch to celebrate my new family.”

“See, this is why I am marrying you. You know what’s important,” Dean said, only partly teasing. “I love you, Cas. I don’t ever want to stop.”

“I love you too. And don’t worry. I won’t let you,” Cas promised, pulling Dean in for a kiss with both his hands.

Cas called his sister after that, not bothering with speaker phone. To his surprise she actually answered the phone, so they chatted for a minute about the trip and then he broke out the big news. He looked so nervous that Dean slid around behind him and held him close, leaning his chin on Cas’ shoulder.

“Yes, it is a little sudden,” Cas said into the phone. “Yes, it’s the same man from Balthazar’s wedding.” There was a pause as he listened to her speak. “Yes, I do. Very much,” he said, looking back at Dean as best he could and smiling. “I’ve never been more certain.” Another pause, slightly longer, during which the tension seemed to bleed out of Cas by degrees. “Thank you. I love you too. Bye.”

“I take it she was happy for you,” Dean said when Cas hung up the phone.

“She was,” Cas said in wonder. “She really was.”

Dean whispered in Cas’ ear. “I’m happy for us too.”

It took them nearly an hour before they made it out for lunch.

~~@~~

It was a gorgeous day in Niagara Falls. They’d picked up Dean’s mom the night before and Sam first thing that morning and they were waiting on both of them to get back from their own personal errands before they walked to the little gazebo where they’d be tying the knot.

The sun was hitting the spray just right to send up tiny rainbows everywhere and Cas looked as radiant as a bride was meant to. Though when Dean told him as much, Cas looked less radiant and more like a wet cat.

“I am _not_ the bride,” Cas said.

Dean grinned. “Nope, but you’re cute as hell when you get grumpy, I’ve told you before.”

Cas huffed a laugh and his anger deflated. “Luckily, I love you enough to forgive your terrible sense of humor.”

“Yeah? ‘Cause I love you enough not to get mad when you insult my jokes,” Dean said, smiling.

“Okay, I’m here!” Dean’s mom called out just then, as she ran toward them with a package in her hands.

“What’s that?” Dean asked, pointing to the box she held.

“Never you mind,” she said with a secretive smile. “It’s for after. Where’s Sam?”

“He’s not back yet. Do you think his hair got caught in something? Should we send out a search party in case he’s trapped by the head?”

Dean’s mom and Cas both snorted and Dean made a mental note to use the joke on Sam as soon as he showed up. Unfortunately, when it was getting very close to time for the ceremony, the giant floppy-haired dork still hadn’t returned.

“Where the heck could he be?” Mary asked, sounding equal parts annoyed and concerned.

“I don’t know, but if he’s not here in just a minute, we gotta go without him,” Dean said firmly.

“He’ll be here,” Cas said calmly. Dean gave him a questioning look, but Cas ignored it.

A few minutes later, just when Dean was about to give up and say it was time to go, he heard thundering footsteps behind him. He turned in time to see his brother, hair flowing back in the breeze, running toward them as fast as his incredibly long legs could carry him.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry! I’m here. It took me longer than I expected to find the, um, the—” He flicked a look at Cas that could not have been more obvious. “—the stuff.”

Dean gave him a flat look. “What stuff?”

“Just, you know, things. Stuff and... things.” Sam avoided Dean’s eyes.

“I had planned for it to be a last minute surprise, and I think it’s already last minute, Sam,” Cas said. Then he turned to Dean. “I bought us rings.”

“You—oh. Oh, wow, okay, yeah, that’s... we’re getting married,” he whispered at the last, smiling at Cas in giddy wonder.

Cas smiled back, equally giddy. “Yes. We are. Are you ready?”

“Oh, hell yeah,” Dean said, voice as full of confidence as he was himself.

A few minutes later, they stood before a justice of the peace, exchanging vows that were much more touching than Dean had expected. He supposed, after some thought, that a Niagara Falls ceremony would be more romantic than a regular courthouse wedding, but the JoP told him after the ceremony that she had used her standard vows for them.

The rings Cas had picked out were perfect, chosen because the twined metals-copper and silver-meant love and lust and everything Dean and Cas had together and Sam had taken so long because he’d gotten them engraved at Cas’ behest. Dean had been moved to tears. This might have been a quickie wedding, decided upon on the spur of the moment, but he had never been more certain or anything—or any happier than he was right then, surrounded by his family, and pormising himself to the man he loved... forever.

“I now pronounce you husbands. You may kiss.”

And kiss they did. Neither of them remembered or cared that Dean’s mother and brother were standing only inches away. They kissed like each of their lives depending on the others’ mouth for continued existence. As breathless as Dean felt when the kiss ended, he wasn’t sure that was not the case.

They had paid for pictures and a small reception and they ate finger food to the soothing tones of 70s and 80s power ballads while Sam danced with their mom and Cas and Dean couldn’t keep their eyes—or hands—off each other. Then Mary came and cut in, stealing Cas away and Dean was stuck with only his brother to talk to.

“I like him,” Sam said, grabbing a handful of crackers with things on them. He didn’t make eye contact, which told Dean how much he meant it.

“Yeah? Awesome. I like him too,” Dean said, voice full of sincerity. He wasn’t being funny. He liked Cas every bit as much as he loved him and he knew that was important.

“Good. Mom does too.” Sam stuffed a cracker into his mouth and ate it, then said, “So, Mom says you sold the Impala?” It was asked nonchalantly, but Dean heard the questions underneath.

“Yeah. I did. Thinking about changing my cell phone number too.”

Sam finally looked at him then, eyes wide and shocked. “Really?”

“I think so. I know just not answering won’t be enough. I think it’s time. Tired of him making me feel like shit for who I am.”

Sam clapped him on the back, nearly causing him to spill his champagne. “Good for you, Dean. I’m really glad.” He made sure Dean was looking at him before he added, “Especially about you and Cas. I know I said it was too soon, but now that I’ve seen you two together, I really don’t think it is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy.”

“Ugh, I thought I invited my brother, not Julia Freaking Roberts,” Dean complained, which was his way of saying, “Thanks for noticing, baby brother.”

Sam just grinned, reading through the brother code. “You’re welcome,” he said, popping another cracker into his mouth.

~~@~~

They spent one more blissful day in Niagara Falls after the wedding and then they said goodbye to Mary and Sam and got on a plane back home. It was not until they were outside, and had just hailed a cab, that Dean realized a very important conversation had not yet been had between them.

As he loaded their gear into the trunk, the driver asked, “So where to?”

Dean and Cas turned to each other, sporting what Dean assumed were matching “Oh, shit!” expressions. To the cab driver, Dean said, “Um, can you give us a second?” The driver shrugged and Dean pulled Cas away gently by the elbow. “I can’t believe we didn’t talk about this.”

“Nor can I. What do you want to do? To be honest, I don’t really care.”

“I think I prefer your apartment. I mean, my house is tiny, and I think I have more happy memories at your place.” Dean gave Cas a searching look. “That okay with you? Obviously, I have to pack up later.”

Cas smiled at him, looking happy. “I just want to be where you are, Dean.” Then he dropped his head slightly and murmured, “But I really do like my apartment.”

Dean had to laugh at that. He gave the cabbie Cas’ address.

“When do we need to pick up the cat?” Dean asked, once they were in the back of the car and riding down the highway toward home.

“Not until tomorrow. Why?”

Dean shook his head. “No reason. Just wondered.” Then he yawned. “Man, I’m so glad I’ve got the weekend off to recover before work on Monday. I’m exhausted. Who knew a week of sex and happiness could be so exhausting, huh?” he asked with a grin, leaning down to nuzzle Cas’ nose.

“I hope we have many more weeks of it in our future,” Cas said, nuzzling back.

Dean smiled, kissing the end of Cas’ nose. “You are such a sap,” he said. Then he kissed Cas properly. “But I hope so too.”

~~@~~

They spent a fantastic few days together, enjoying married bliss, before a lack of clothes forced Dean to head over to his house one day after he and Cas had dinner. Unfortunately for Dean, there was an unwelcome surprise waiting for him at home. When he pulled up in the drive, he noticed an old pickup at the curb. Then he realized there was a figure on the porch. Realizing it was his father, he felt dread pool in his belly.

“Damn, son, it’s about time you got here. Thought you got off work at five?”

“It’s none of your business when I get off. And I don’t actually live here anymore,” Dean shot back, climbing up the steps while looking for the right key to let himself in the door.

“What do you mean? You selling the place? After all that talk about wanting your own house?”

Dean sighed, giving up on his keys. “Cas and I have another place and we’re gonna live there.”

“Cas? That your boyfriend?” John asked, frowning slightly.

Dean smiled in spite of his anger. “No. He’s my husband, actually. We got married last week.”

John’s face was wiped of all expression. “You did _what_?” he asked in a low whisper.

“I got married, Dad. To Cas. And we are happy.” Dean held out a hand. “Give me your phone.”

Dean’s voice was so commanding that John actually did it before he thought to ask, “What for?”

“I’m going to delete my info from your contacts list. If you’re gonna be an asshole about the man I love, I don’t want you in my life.”

“Wait! Dean, wait. I didn’t know you two were that serious is all.”

“Well, we are. We’re forever, Dad. So you either accept that, accept _me,_ or we got nothing to say to each other.” He held his fingers poised over the phone, threateningly.

John held out a hand. “Don’t do that, son. I don’t... married, huh? Can I meet him?”

Dean was shocked, but he held his face blank. “Are you gonna be an asshole?”

John held up his hands. “No! I just... if you’re that serious about him, then I wanna meet him.”

“Fine. But the second you say anything shitty to him, the meeting is over and I’ll fucking change my number if that’s what it takes, Dad, I swear it,” he said, handing back John’s phone. “By the way, I sold the Impala.”

“You—oh. Oh, all right. You get a good price, I hope?”

Dean was very surprised by his father’s behavior. He had expected more assholery. His father was capitulating way too easily. Dean didn’t trust it.

“Why are you here, anyway?” he asked, leaning on the door.

John dropped his gaze to the ground. “Um, actually, I went to the doctor a few weeks ago.”

Dean felt a little sick, but he said nothing, waiting for his father to continue.

“It was a new doctor and she said she noticed some things during our interview, so she sent me to a specialist.”

“Damn, Dad, spit it out, are you dying or what?” Dean blurted, fear crawling up his insides.

John laughed a little. “No, son. Actually... this is harder to say than I thought—and I thought it was gonna be hard.” He scratched the back of his neck in a way any friend of Dean’s would have recognized instantly. “I’ve got bipolar disorder and a couple other things. They’ve put me on medication.”

“You....” Dean started, but he couldn’t finish.

“They had me bring your mom in too, so they could interview her. Told me a lot of my behavior toward her—and you boys—over the years was probably related to the whole mental illness thing.”

“Oh.” Dean knew there was a time when he spoke English, but at the moment, he just couldn’t seem to remember how to do it. His phone rang in his pocket and he picked it up. “Hey, Cas.”

“Hi, I was just wondering how soon you’d be heading back. I need a few things from the store, but I didn’t want to leave if you were on your way back.”

“Not, um, not yet. I can pick the stuff up, though, on my way home.”

They negotiated for a minute and then Dean said, “My dad is here, Cas. He’d like to meet you sometime.”

“And how do you feel about that, Dean?” Cas asked in a cautious tone.

“I was thinking maybe we could all go to Houlihan’s for dinner tomorrow night?”

Cas was clearly surprised. “Oh. All right. Yes, that sounds nice. I’ll see you in a little while. I love you.”

“Love you too,” Dean said with a small smile. “Cas says dinner tomorrow sounds nice,” he told John as he hung up the phone.

John nodded. “Great. That’s great. Um, look, the meds, they aren’t fully functional yet, but I can already start to see that a lot of my behavior wasn’t right, Dean. I can’t make it up, I know, but I’ll do my best. And I wanted to say sorry.”

Dean just nodded, unable to say more. He wasn’t ready to forgive, to let a diagnosis excuse years of hell. Still, his father had apologized for the first time ever. It wasn’t something to be taken lightly. He clapped his dad on the arm and his father returned the gesture.

“I’ll let you get back to it, then,” John said. “See you tomorrow. Seven o’clock all right?”

“Let’s make it six. Cas likes to eat early.”  
John smiled. “Six it is.” He turned to go and then turned back. “Thanks, Dean.” Then he was gone.

~~@~~

“We don’t have to do this,” Cas told Dean for the fifth time.

“I know. I want to. I feel like this is important,” Dean said again.

Cas’s reassurances didn’t keep him from biting his nails and pacing, however. Cas wasn’t nervous, nor did he seem to have any problem with meeting John, but he kept offering Dean the out, anyway.

“Dean,” Cas said firmly, putting a hand on Dean’s arm. “It’s going to be fine. No matter what happens. It’s going to be fine.”

“But what if he’s an asshole to you? I couldn’t—”

Cas laughed and Dean frowned at him. “Dean. I am an out and proud pansexual. Do you really think I haven’t dealt with my share of homophobic assholes before?”

Dean chewed another nail to the quick. “Yeah, but my dad, he has a way of getting to your soft spots.”

“No,” Cas said, face and voices and hands full of gentleness as he pulled Dean to him. “He has a way of knowing _your_ soft spots. Because he created a lot of them. I am strong enough to handle him.” He squeezed Dean then stepped back. “But you said he’s medicated now, right?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Come on, sweetheart. It’s time to go. We’ll get through this, either way, and come out the other side better, all right?”

The certainty in Cas’s voice was impossible to argue with, so Dean just nodded and let himself be led out the door. Cas drove them to Houlihan’s and Dean saw the pickup already in a space. When they got close, he spotted his dad at a table by the window. John saw them and waved, a big smile on his face. Dean’s shoulders relaxed.

The hostess walked them over to John’s table and they sat down. Before introductions could be made, the waitress arrived to take their drink orders. John ordered iced tea and right away Dean knew things were different for real. Cas ordered a margarita and Dean opted for the same.

“So, Dad, this is Cas. Cas, this is John, my dad.”

His father smiled and extended a hand across the table, which Cas took and shook. He was smiling too.

“It’s good to meet you, Cas.”

“Likewise,” Cas said.

“I gotta say, I was a little nervous. Dean here, he’s not been one much for romance, so I knew you had to be something special.” Dean searched his father’s face for any sign that there was veiled meaning in his words, or hatefulness hiding and waiting its turn, but he saw nothing of the kind.

Cas smiled and looked at Dean. “If either of us is special, I’m sure it’s Dean. I was never much for romance myself, until he came along.”

Dean couldn’t keep from smiling back, even if he’d wanted to.

“Well, congratulations.” John laughed. “You know, in a straight marriage, tradition says you only congratulate the groom, but I guess I congratulate both of you, huh?” Once again, Dean waited for the jab, but instead, his father laughed again and said, “Poor lesbians who get hitched, huh? Nobody congratulates them I guess.”

Cas chuckled politely, while Dean tried to smile through the feeling he was in the Twilight Zone with his father’s pod double. The waitress came and went with their drinks.

John cleared his throat and said, “I guess that kind of shows that, just because you’ve been told something is the right way all your life, that doesn’t mean it is.” He looked at Dean pointedly. “Cas, I’m sure Dean has told you, I haven’t always been supportive of his ch—of his life. My medications have cleare d my head enough to let me see that my behavior was reprehensible and I’m sorry, Dean. I started to say choices, but they aren’t choices. I get that now. No way would you have chosen something where you had to endure my bullshit, if you could have chosen something else.”

Dean laughed a little, mostly in shock. All the things he’d ever wanted to hear from his father and suddenly, there they were. He didn’t trust it. It was all too new. There was a part of him, though, that wanted to throw himself at his father and hug him, like he had when he was little and his dad had been his hero.

“You folks ready to order?” the waitress asked.

Dean was saved from further contemplation for the next few minutes while they all put in their requests. By the time the waitress was gone, having gotten the full Dean Winchester treatment, the heavy mood had dissipated and Dean felt relaxed again.

“Are you always going to flirt with waitresses when we go out?” Cas asked in dispassionate voice, more like he was curious than annoyed.

John laughed. “Cas, you should know, this boy’s been a flirt since he came out of the womb. Never mattered male or female, either, but I think he learned early on he got better results from the women, so he focused his attentions there.”

Dean blushed, but Cas laughed too. “This is good to know. I bet you were a cute kid,” Cas said, nudging Dean’s shoulder lightly.

“The cutest,” John said. “Here, I bet I’ve got a picture in here. Yep. Take a look at that kid, would ya?”

“Oh, my God, you had a bowl cut!” Cas said with glee. “You were adorable, though.”

“Shut up,” Dean said, corners of his mouth twitching.

“Always was a good-looking kid, that one. Nurses fell for him as soon as he was born, like that song _Bad to the Bone_ ,” John joked.

Cas looked at Dean, all teasing gone from his face. “He is rather beautiful.”

Dean cleared his throat and drank his margarita.

“So Cas, tell me about you. You got family?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Close to the finish line kids. Get your comments in now! ♥


	6. EPILOGUE

Dean couldn’t believe it had been a year already since he’d married his best friend in front of Niagara Falls. His whole family was getting together for a party in their honor. If anyone had told him the month before Niagara Falls that this was where he’d be thirteen months later, he’d have laughed his ass off.

His father, brother, and mother were all in the same room and getting along, which was shocking enough, even now. His sister-in-law and niece’s presence would have been no surprise to his past self, but the fact that his husband and his _cat_ would be there too would have blown him away.

Now it just made him really, really happy.

This was a combination anniversary party and housewarming, since they’d moved out of Cas’s apartment and into a new house the week before. He’d miss that place for a long time, but the new house suited them better. The apartment was still too much the domain of their old bachelor lifestyle. The new house felt more like a home for a family.

“You getting contemplative again?” Cas asked, sidling up and wrapping his arms around Dean from behind.

“You know that no one actually talks like that, right?” Dean asked, turning his head back for a kiss.

Cas snorted. “That’s obviously not true.”

“Don’t you mean ‘I question the veracity of your statement, given the evidence to the contrary?’” Dean teased.

“You fucker. You know how sexy I think it is when you use formalized speech.”

Dean groaned. “And _you_ know how sexy I think it is when you cuss.”

“Fuck,” Cas said in a low voice, a gleam in his eye. “Ass,” he said with a cheeky grin. He dropped his voice to a low rumble and slowly said, “ _Cock_.”

“Oh my God, Cas, my mom is across the room, what is wrong with you?” Dean said, even as he turned in his husband’s arms and gave him a kiss hot enough to melt his brain into goo.

“All right you two love birds, it’s time to open gifts!” John called out.

To everyone’s surprise—Dean’s maybe most of all—John had kept up with his meds for a solid year now. He had done a complete turn around on how he treated everyone. There was even the possibility that Dean’s parents might be reconciling, though he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

“Open ours first!” Jess called, hoisting his niece onto her hip easily, even though she was five months along with his nephew already.

“Yeah, Dean, come on. Cas, get him over here!” Sam said, moving to step behind his wife and child.

Reluctantly, Dean moved away from Cas and pulled his husband over to the gifts. “Which one is it?”

“I think it’s the really big one,” Mary said, reaching over to scoop up her grandbaby and sipping her mojito at the same time.

“You do it,” Cas said.

Dean ripped off the paper to find a blank cardboard box. He grabbed his pocket knife and opened it up. When he’d fought through all the bubble wrap, he found...

“A steering wheel? You guys know I sold the Impala, right?” he asked, genuinely confused.

Sam smacked himself in the forehead. “Oh, shoot! I completely forgot. Sorry bro. We’ll get you something better next year.”

Dean gave a bemused laugh. “Yeah, maybe something for the pair of us? We are a couple, after all. Kinda the point of the party, dude.”

“Well, open mine next, Dean!” Mary called, bouncing his niece happily.

This time, it was a pistol-grip shifter. “Mom? You too?” This was really kind of annoying. They’d left Cas out, which was worse to him than forgetting he’d sold the car.

“I don’t think you’re gonna like mine any better, son,” John said, handing him a small box.

“An Impala-engraved keychain,” Dean said, starting to get suspicious for the first time.

“I have a gift for you too, Dean,” Cas said and Dean could just barely see the hint of a smile in his eyes. He handed Dean a gift envelope with a bow on it. Dean looked at him questioningly, but Cas only nodded at the gift. Dean slid it open to find a title and a key.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked, confused.

“Well, son, it’s like this,” John said, slipping beside him to wrap an arm around his shoulders. “I was an asshole for a long time, but your husband here is pretty fucking awesome.”

“I’m the one who bought the Impala, Dean. I’ve been having it restored ever since.”

“You... what? Dude, you came to my house to celebrate with me when I sold it!” Then his eyes got misty. “That was the night you told me you loved me for the first time.”

Cas smiled, that huge gummy one Dean loved more than air. “And now you know I meant it.” Then his grin turned into a smirk and he whispered, “Fucker.”

The kiss Dean gave him was not appropriate for family viewing audiences, but said family was kind enough to leave the room without mentioning it. Or, if they did, Dean didn’t hear them.

“Your blatant manipulation of the situation for your own gain speaks poorly of your conscience, Castiel,” Dean whispered when they came up for air.

Cas growled. “Unless you want me to strip you naked in front of your parents, I suggest we try and wrap this party up quickly.”

Dean contemplated that for a minute. “Or we could just jerk each other off really quick in the guest bathroom.”

“What the fuck are you waiting for?”

“We were only forestalled whilst awaiting your consent.”

“I will kill you, Dean. Bathroom. _Now_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! Hope you enjoyed reading even half as much as I enjoyed writing. Leave me a comment and let me know. And please, if you have a minute, [spread the word](http://jamiedeanwrites.tumblr.com/post/118453611081/the-story-of-jax-and-dylan)? ♥♥♥

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! ♥


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